The Negros Occidental provincial government has identified two properties as sites for regional offices of government agencies under the Negros Island Region (NIR) with P 6 billion budget.
Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz II announced this during the First Coordination Meeting of the Regional Directors on the Organization of the Regional Development Council for NIR, held at the Provincial Capitol Social Hall on Wednesday, March 5.
The first property spans 25 hectares in Barangay Matab-ang, Talisay City, while the second covers 7,500 square meters along Lacson Street and Cottage Road in Bacolod City.
The Bacolod site, which previously housed the Land Transportation Office, Veterans Bank, and Boy Scouts of the Philippines, will serve as the location for a 28-story multi-use building.
Diaz said the provincial government has yet to develop the Matab-ang property because regional offices have not decided on its specific use. However, the provincial government will fund road concreting, electricity, and water connections.
The provincial government and government agencies will formalize the use of the property through a usufruct agreement, while each agency will finance its own office buildings.
Meanwhile, NIR regional offices will lease office spaces in the planned 28-story multi-use building in Bacolod. The construction will follow a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.
The multi-use building will cost P6 billion, according to Diaz. However, he did not disclose which government agencies will occupy these locations.*
Reymund Titong is a Filipino journalist steadily building his voice in the field of news reporting, driven by a commitment to tell meaningful and relevant stories.
He serves as a correspondent for Rappler, maintains a personal blog on Medium, and is the communications officer of Hope Builders Organization Negros Island.