NEGROS Occidental Acting Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said that he will not favor federalism anymore if the Negrosanon Federated Region (NFR) will not be realized.

Though he said that federalism should not be rushed due to the Bangsamoro Basic Law. "Let's see how the BBL works in Mindanao and if it will then maybe we could also apply it in the whole country,” he said.

Another thing, he said, is the recent decision of the Supreme Court about the National Taxes would give 40 percent shares to the local government units (LGUs) from the excise tax.

Lacson made the reaction after Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier said he is pushing for only four to five federated regions under federalism because he believes that several regions would not stand per record of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

The Consultative Commission proposed 18 federated regions that would include the NFR.

Meanwhile, Lacson said because of the experiences of former president and Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he believes the new Speaker of the House could very well handle the leadership.

He said the changing of the guards at the lower house was the choice of the congressmen. "Maybe they feel there's a need for a change because some of the congressmen were feeling that former speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was already deciding for everybody especially the no election,” which turned out that it was not the stand of the majority of the members.