Mar on P21-B aid for LGUs: Not my ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines - Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II denied yesterday that the P21-billion financial aid for local government units (LGUs) in the 2015 national budget would serve as his pork barrel fund.

“That’s not my fund nor the money of my department. It belongs to barangay communities and other local government units,” he told the House of Representatives appropriations committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab.

Roxas was responding to questions raised initially by party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan of Gabriela and later by party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio of Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

He said the P21 billion for LGUs is for projects identified by the people themselves in consultation with their local officials under the administration’s grassroots participatory budgeting program (GPBP).

“It is the people themselves who have directly chosen these projects based on their needs. If the funds are not sufficient, it is they who prioritize their projects. We have no participation in determining what they need,” he said.

He wondered how his critics could label the fund as his pork barrel.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, who presided over the hearing as appropriations committee vice chairman, told his colleagues that the GPBP is “an honest-to-goodness effort of the government to involve the people and LGUs in national budgeting.”

“For the first time, barangay communities are asked to propose projects for funding in the national budget. It is the people who decide on what they need in terms of infrastructure and services. There is no political bias here,” he said.

Roxas said of the P21-billion GPBP funding, only P5.7 billion would be given to LGUs through his department.

“We will just release the funds, which will be spent for projects barangay communities and their LGUs have chosen and which are detailed in the national budget. We are not involved in the procurement process and in the awarding of contracts,” he said.

He said the balance of the fund would be released to agencies that would implement the specified projects.

“If they are agriculture-related projects, the implementing agency would be the Department of Agriculture. If infrastructure, the funds would go to the Department of Public Works and Highways, and if social services, to the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” he added.

Roxas, president-on-leave of the ruling Liberal Party, presented to the appropriations committee five sets of two-inch-thick documents, which he said detail the GPBP projects.

The GPBP allots P30 million for each city and P15 million for each town.

To prove that there is no politics in the allocation of funds, he referred to certain villages in the district of Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong, a former member of Lakas who now belongs to the National Unity Party.

“These were chosen by your constituents,” he told Ong, who acknowledged that the barangay units mentioned indeed are part of his district.

Reading from his listings, he also cited certain projects in remote towns in Bohol and Negros Oriental.

He said potable water systems were the dominant projects chosen by barangay communities.

“Clean water is what our rural folks and even those in many urban barangays need,” he said.

Ilagan and Tinio observed that in the voluminous listing of GPBP projects, there were generic entries titled “various other projects” together with the corresponding amounts allocated for them.

They wondered if these would not be used as pork barrel funds.

Roxas explained that the generic title is just a temporary label because LGUs that have exceeded their fund allocations have been asked to prioritize their projects and have yet to submit a final listing.

Evardone suggested that the final list should be submitted soon “because we will not allow lump sums and we will have to itemize the projects.”

While Ilagan appeared satisfied with Roxas’ explanation, Tinio was adamant and insisted that the P5.7 billion in GPBP funds under the local government department would serve as pork barrel.

Sounding exasperated, the local government secretary dared Tinio to scrap the amount in the budget. — With Delon Porcalla