UNLESS a faster means to access
state funds is devised, the local government of Mambulao would have to brace
itself for projected delays in its infrastructure and socio-economic programs
in 2014.
And surely, with a very minimal
allocation from Mayor Ricarte “Dong” Padilla’s usual funding sources that
included a handful of friendly senators and congressmen, the LGU’s development
program is bound to suffer a stroke.
We could now assume that the
biggest casualty among the LGU’s pet project is its baranggay road cementing
project.
From a moderate speed that the
road project is being carried out to these days, it is expected to slow down,
or may even ground to a halt, next year.
The trickle of development funds
for Mambulao from the scandal-tainted pork barrel is, finally, going to dry up.
On the wee hours of Saturday,
September 28, the House of Representatives approved on second reading House
Bill No 2630 on next year’s P2.268 trillion national budget.
In so doing, the chamber formally
scrapped P25.2 billion worth of pork barrel, or the scandal-soaked PDAF, aka the
Priority Development Assistance Fund.
Congressmen also removed
Vice-President Jejomar Binay’s own P200 million allocation.
Now out of the country’s
lawmakers’ hands and control, the aggregate amount of P25.25.4 billion was then
allocated to six key agencies.
As expected, the Department of
Public Works and Highways (DPWH) got the biggest slice of P9.654 billion.
Unlike before when congressmen
decided where their pork barrel money should go and how much, the new state
funding regime has only allowed them to propose pet projects.
Here, they could name only five
infrastructure projects, to be carried out by the DPWH.
And each one could only access a
budget ceiling of just P24.5 million for all the projects.
In light of this new scenario,
how would Padilla’s road cementing project fare?
During the past 38 months of his
governance, with the last two months ushering in his second term as mayor,
Padilla received modest funding from lawmakers, who included senators Juan
Ponce Enrile, Chiz Escudero and Teofisto “TG” Guingona and congressmen from
CamNorte.
This money, which was sourced
from the lawmakers’ pork barrel allocations, mostly went into the concreting of
the municipality’s baranggay roads.
Other substantial amount,
although not in millions, went to socio-economic projects such as deep well
pumps, baranggay halls, health care centers, classrooms, so on and so forth.
Very recent of such projects to
get pork was the 2km San Pedro-Baranggay Silang Dos (Labo town) concrete road
that would connect Mambulao to the Maharlika Highway, one that would serve as a
diversion road in future.
The funding came from Enrile and
estimated between P15 million and P20 million.
Of course, Mambulao also received
a windfall of pork that also funded various projects in its 27 baranggays from
the office of the Provincial Governor Edgardo “Egay” Tallado.
The provincial capitol has
claimed that the governor poured into Mambulao a total of P159.5 million in so
called development initiatives.
Most of the provincial government
development funding for Mambulao during the years 2011 to the present came from
the pork barrel allocations of the Office of the President, specifically the
Office of the Presidential Affairs on Peace Process (OPAPP), Enrile and other
lawmakers, and money from the General Appropriations Act, through the Agrarian
reform Community Projects (ARC), National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and
Department of Health,
Since state funds would no longer
be accessed directly from the congressman who covers Mambulao and the rest of
the Tagalog-speaking district towns of Paracale, Labo, Santa Elena and
Capalonga, it is safely assumed that there would be delays in securing such
development funding caused by the bureaucratic grinder.
For instance, funding for road
projects has been “centralized” with the DPWH at the head office.
And with 1,491 municipalities and
142 cities wanting to have their roads improved or built, this department would
be overwhelmed by direct funding requests from across the country.
And with the five towns in the
CamNorte’s first district trying to jockey for infrastructure funding from
Congresswoman Cathy Barcelona Reyes, who got only P24.5 million in next year’s
state funds allocation, each municipality would have only an average of P4.9
million.
This, if Reyes decides to hand
out the money to them equally.
And P4.9 million won’t build a
kilometer of cement road.
Under the new rules, Reyes is allowed
only to propose five “infrastructure” projects with a total funding of just
P24.5 million.
If Padilla is not a friend of the
congresswoman, chances are he would have to settle for crumbs that would
instead go to other projects with lesser funding requirements.
And unless he is fast enough to
get a friendly conduit to access funding for his road projects from the DPWH,
he would have to go through the usual red tape that could keep money out of his
reach for months.
And this is bad for Mambulao.
This is bad for Mambulaoans, too,
who, until now, are still trying to make of the future ahead of them: will
development and progress finally come?
The entire Filipino people are
crying for the scrapping of the pork barrel that was made notoriously bad by the
systematic stealing of more than P10 billion in people’s money involving at
least five popular senators along with several congressmen and a private
businesswoman named Janet Napoles.
This end has come finally,
courtesy of the House of Representatives, whose members decided with finality
to banish the pork barrel for good.
It will begin next year.
And next year is also the start
of Padilla’s new headaches in making both ends meet to complete his baranggay road cementing
project.
Obviously, pork barrel money
would be sourly missed in Mambulao
But this could not be helped. A
new beginning for a change in the way our government deals with the people’s
money has to start somewhere.
This could be it.
- Alfredo
P Hernandez
For feedback, email:
aphernandez@thenational.com.pg and
alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
