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Party-list solon hits Arroyo for showering home district with funds


Former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had used her presidential powers to secure the P2.2 billion worth of projects for her home district in Pampanga, a partylist representative said Thursday. In a press conference, Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello said he obtained the information from no less than Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Rogelio Singson during a meeting with lawmakers Wednesday. Bello accused Mrs. Arroyo of padding the budget allotted for the 2nd district of Pampanga with projects worth a total of P2.22 billion funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Korea Economic Development and Cooperation Fund (KEDCF). The party-list lawmaker said Mrs. Arroyo contracted these loans for projects to be implemented exclusively in her district while she was still the highest official of the land. “Before she left office, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo used the presidency to engineer perpetually high funding for the 2nd district of Pampanga," said Bello. He said of the P2.242 billion allotted total budget for Pampanga’s 2nd district, only P22.184 million, or one peso for every P100, will come from the national government. “It is outrageous that the DPWH has control over barely 1% of the budget for public works in the 2nd district of Pampanga," Bello pointed out. “Even the Secretary himself has conceded that he is helpless when it comes to the loans that Arroyo has contracted." Faulty projects? He said the additional problem was that the road construction projects were faulty. Bello showed photographs of unfinished roads in Guagua town, which were elevated up to the first level of buildings and houses, rendering sidewalks useless, and houses almost inaccessible. The photographs also showed incompletely-built drainage systems. “So much construction, so much contracts, so much money poured into questionable projects. These uncoordinated projects have created big problems for citizens," he said. According to Bello, even Secretary Singson attested to the validity of the photographs of road construction in the town of Guagua. “Tuyo ang kalsada, baha naman ang mga bahay (The roads are dry, but the houses get flooded)," Bello quoted Singson as saying during their meeting. He further said the P2.2-billion allocation triggered demands for equity from representatives of other congressional districts that received far smaller allocations in the proposed national budget for 2011. Bello said the protests led to a compromise worked out by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to provide each congressional district with a minimum of P50 million in DPWH funding—which the partylist lawmaker said further strains government resources. He added: “By steering billions worth of foreign assisted projects to the 2nd district of Pampanga when she was still president, Mrs. Arroyo has left the new administration a difficult task to manage the budget of DPWH." With this, the lawmaker urged the DPWH to find a way to cancel the P2.2-billion loans, scrap the additional budget for Mrs. Arroyo’s district, and ensure the immediate repair of the roads in Guagua and other parts of Pampanga. ‘Baseless and unfounded’ Elena Bautista-Horn, chief of staff and spokesman of Mrs. Arroyo, said Bello’s allegations were baseless and unfounded. She explained the allocations are intended for two foreign-assisted projects which started in 1996 and in 2003, following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. She said the JBIC is funding the Urgent Bridge Construction Project for Rural Road Development or the Mt. Pinatubo Hazard Mapping which started in 1996 and the 2003 Gapan-San Fernando Olongapo-Road which is being financed by the Korean EDCF. Bautista-Horn said the P1.678 billion will come from foreign funding and the government will shell out some P542 million-plus as counterpart fund. “Hindi tama na sabihin na ginamit ni GMA ang impluwensiya dahil loan agreement ang napirmahan noong March 1996 dahil sa Pinatubo eruption. Sana ‘wag ituro ng mga daliri, nagkataon lang na kongresista siya at benepisyunaryo siya ng loan agreement that happened in 1996," Bautista-Horn told reporters. (It’s not right to say that GMA used her influence because the loan agreement was signed in March 1996 due to the Pinatubo eruption. We wish there’s no finger-pointing, because it so happened that she was then a congresswoman and a beneficiary of the loan agreement that happened in 1996.) She added: “Kayo siguro, nakadaan na rin sa Olongapo-Gapan Road, kailangang ayusin at kahit sinong maupong kongresista will benefit from loan package. Sa tingin ko ‘di tamang sabihin na ginamit niya ang impluwensiya niya dahil noong 2003 wala pang planong tumakbong kongresista ang dating Pangulo." (You probably have passed through the Olongapo-Gapan Road. It needs repairs and whoever sits in Congress will benefit from the loan package. I think it’s not right to say she used her influence because in 2003 the former President didn’t have plans as yet to run for a congressional seat.)—JV, GMANews.TV

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