One Negros: Developing an Island Region

noreply@blogger.com (Virgilio Paralisan) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 23:36:00 +0000

Negros. One of the largest islands in the Philippine archipelago is made up of two provinces: Negros Occidental being part of Western Visayas or Region VI and Negros Oriental being part of Central Visayas or Region VII. The capital city of Negros Occidental is Bacolod City, being a highly-urbanized city is classified as a first class city while the capital city of Negros Oriental is Dumaguete City, a 3rd class city.

The Philippine government is organized according to geo-political units which starts with the basic and smallest unit called the barangay. A number of barangays constitute a city or a municipality. A cluster of municipalities and cities make up a province. A cluster of provinces make up a region.

Negros Occidental has a population of 2,907,849 distributed in 13 cities, 19 municipalities and a total of 662 barangays.

Negros Oriental has a population of 1,286,666 distributed across 6 cities, 19 municipalities and a total of 557 barangays.

Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental are first class provinces.

Last May 29, 2015, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order No. 183 creating a Negros Island Region (NIR). The Negros Island Region officially designated as Administrative Region No. 18 is made up of the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.

The executive order declares the "need to further accelerate the social and economic development of the cities and municipalities comprising the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental and improve the delivery of public services in the aforementioned provinces."

According to the Commission on Audit (COA), Negros Occidental generated an income of PhP2.2 billion in 2013 while Negros Oriental earned PhP1.4 billion. This level of income makes Negros Occidental among the richest provinces in the Philippines.

The other side of this story is that both provinces are home to one of the country's higher poverty incidence rates. Negros Occidental has a poverty incidence rate of 32.3% roughly 24.9% of families while Negros Oriental is at 50.1% of the population or 43.9% of families.

In essence, Negros Oriental ranks as one of the poorest in the Philippines. Historically, this level of poverty became the recruitment platform for the communist insurgents from the early 70s to the late 80s. It became a platform for other forms of social unrest and instability.

Poverty is a pervasive issue many stakeholders in both Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental have been wrestling in years. The provinces now being in a single region may provide opportunities for a more focus approach to the issue of poverty.

On its own, the respective local governments of the Negros Island Region won't be able to reduce or eliminate poverty. There is not enough commercial or industrial activity in both Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental to drive the desired and much needed growth. The only dominant business sector in the region is the sugar industry and it is currently not the biggest contributor to growth. Since the major players in the industry need very cheap labor the industry thrives on poverty.

The most logical and pragmatic approach is to encourage investments from across many sectors: domestic and foreign. By encouraging investments, the local economy will grow in terms of volume of investments and the diversity of businesses. This in turn will drive job opportunities which means a bigger based of consumers with higher spending power. This converts to higher income tax revenues for local governments.

The question now is how do we go about driving investments to the Negros Island Region.

One Negros: One Voice. One Island. One Vision.

One Negros: Developing an Island Region