House Bill No. 4218, or the proposed “One Samar Island Region Act,” which seeks to establish a distinct regional government for Samar Island is filed in the House of Representatives (HOR).
Minority Leader and 4Ps Partylist Rep. Marcelino Libanan togther with Eastern Samar Lone District Rep. Christopher Sheen Gonzales, Samar 1st District Rep. Stephen James Tan, Samar 2nd District Rep. Reynolds Michael Tan, Northern Samar 1st District Rep. Niko Raul Daza, and Northern Samar 2nd District Rep. Edwin Marino Ongchuan are the proponents of House Bill Number 4218.
“To fully harness the potentials of the Island of Samar and its people, it must stand alone as an administrative region of the country—and, by extension, of the national government. Creating the One Samar Island Region will enable the island and its populace to finally throw off the shackles of centuries of neglect and establish the path for self-reliance and genuine development,” the proposed bill reads.
Once passed into law, the measure calls for the creation of a Samar Island Technical Working Group (TWG).
The TWG is composed of representatives from the Office of the President, the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, representatives of the Office of the Governor of the provinces of Northern Samar, Samar, and Eastern Samar, and their district representatives.
The TWG will “put in place the institutional arrangements for the Samar Island Region, recommend to the Office of the President the preferred location of the regional center, and arrange the requirements for the organizational development, staffing, and budgeting of regional line and regulatory agencies, as well as the imperatives for development planning and investment programming.”
Samar, the third-largest island in the country, has a land area of 13,428.8 square kilometers. The island, with a population of 1.9 million, is composed of Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Samar provinces
