Why one Philippine island has spent decades fighting to become a single administrative region

Countries & Cities · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Negros is the fourth-largest island in the Philippines, yet for years its two provinces were governed from different regions across the sea. This geographic split, rooted in linguistic divides and colonial history, has fueled a long-standing political struggle for unity, punctuated by economic crises and dramatic administrative reversals.

Divided by a central mountain range, Negros is split into two provinces: Negros Occidental, where Hiligaynon is spoken, and Negros Oriental, home to Cebuano speakers. This partition, formalized in 1890, has long dictated the island's governance. For decades, the provinces were assigned to separate administrative regions, with regional offices located on the neighboring islands of Panay and Cebu. This arrangement meant that local officials often had to travel across the sea to manage regional affairs, a logistical hurdle that sparked a persistent movement for a unified, single-island region.

The push for autonomy reached a milestone in 2015 when President Benigno Aquino III established the Negros Island Region via Executive Order No. 183. However, the experiment was short-lived. In 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte dissolved the region, citing a lack of funding. The decision was met with significant backlash from local residents, known as Negrenses. The dream of unity was finally revived on June 13, 2024, when President Bongbong Marcos signed Republic Act No. 12000, reconstituting the region to include Negros and the neighboring island of Siquijor.

This administrative history is inseparable from the island's turbulent economic past. In the 1970s and 1980s, the island's reliance on sugar—a critical export controlled by government-sanctioned monopolies—led to catastrophe. When international sugar prices collapsed, the resulting 'Negros Famine' left over 190,000 workers without livelihoods and thousands of children severely malnourished. The crisis, which Bishop Antonio Fortich famously described as a 'social volcano,' deepened social tensions and fueled the growth of the New People’s Army. Today, the island remains a complex landscape of volcanic peaks, geothermal energy, and a population of over 4.7 million people, still navigating the legacy of its colonial origins and its quest for regional self-determination.

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