Lawmaker to file Congress bill to create Samar Island Region

TACLOBAN CITY — A lawmaker is calling for the creation of a Samar Island Region (SIR) to address widespread poverty and concerns of peace and order on the third largest island in the country.

Rep. Marcelino Libanan of the 4Ps party-list group said he would file a bill in the House of Representative in response to the appeal of three bishops in Samar to have a separate region for Samar island.

“I will file the One Samar, One Region measure when our session at the House of Representatives resumes,” he said in a press conference on July 15.

Congress is set to resume its regular sessions on July 23, a day before President Marcos delivers his second State of the Nation Address.

Libanan, the House’s minority floor leader, believed an SIR would bring economic development on the island, which is composed of Samar, Northern Samar, and Eastern Samar provinces.

Allocation of funds for development-related projects, he added, would be higher if Samar was a separate region compared to the current situation where it shares allocation with the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, and Biliran.

Libanan said he would lobby for the creation of the SIR, especially that incumbent House Speaker Martin Romualdez as well as President Marcos’ mother Imelda are both from Leyte.

The three Catholic bishops of Samar Island—Crispin Varquez of Borongan, Emmanuel Trance of Catarman, and Isabelo Abarquez of Calbayog—earlier pushed for the creation of the SIR to address poverty and other concerns on the island.

The three Samar provinces have a combined population of 1.11 million.

A study by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2021 showed that Northern Samar had a poverty rate of 19.3 percent, Eastern Samar with 29.4 percent, and Samar with 27.0 percent.

The island also continues to be hounded by the presence of the New People’s Army (NPA), especially in Northern Samar, where communist guerrilla fronts are based.

Libanan said he had an informal discussion with Governors Sharee Ann Tan of Samar and Edwin Ongchuan of Northern Samar, who both expressed support for the creation of SIR.

One of his priorities, Libanan said, is constructing a road network that would not only connect the municipalities of Eastern Samar to its capital city of Borongan, but to Samar and Northern Samar as well.

Last Saturday, Libanan led the groundbreaking for a road project that will connect the town of Maydolong in Eastern Samar, starting from Barangay Del Pilar, to the village of Balagon, Basey town in Samar.

A day earlier, President Marcos also spearheaded the opening of the Samar Pacific Coastal Road Project in Palapag town, Northern Samar, which will not only connect the towns of Palapag, Laoang, and Catubig, all in Northern Samar, but also Arteche town in Eastern Samar.

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