Tuesday, July 05, 2005
2nd district gets bulk of Capitol financial aid
Capitol has given more than P155.7 million to help its towns and cities.
But even with her assurance to equitably distribute resources to the towns, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia gave a lesser amount to areas belonging to the fourth district.
In her one year in office, Garcia poured into the fourth district only P7.6 million in monetary aid.
The fourth district is the turf of Garcia’s strongest political rival in the elections, former congressman Celestino Martinez Jr.
In contrast, Garcia gave a total of P46.7 million to towns in the second district, where her hometown Dumanjug belongs and which was vital in her election to office.
Specifically, Garcia gave Dumanjug a total of P8.3 million in aid.
In explaining the disparity, Garcia’s camp had said she was merely responding to those who requested for assistance.
Besides, the second district also has the most number of towns, at 15.
This means that excluding Dumanjug, the remaining 14 towns in the second district got an average of P2.74 million in aid (assuming that the remaining P38.4 million was distributed equally among the 14 towns).
The fourth district, on the other hand, has nine towns, with each town getting less than P850,000, if the P7.6 million were distributed equally.
The disparity would show that a town in the second district got monetary aid three times more than what one town from the fourth district got.
Although not all towns in the fourth district actually received monetary aid from Capitol, various projects have been implemented there.
Other towns
Following the second district is the fifth district, which received P38,216,000. The area’s coverage includes 10 towns and Danao City.
The first district got more than P24 million, while the third district was given P15.7 million.
Minglanilla and Naga of the first district and Barili and Balamban of the third district follow, as they all received more than P6 million in monetary assistance.
With its three towns and two cities, the sixth district received the smallest monetary assistance from the Province, at some P6 million.
Promise
Her opponents had criticized her for unequal distribution of Capitol’s resources, but Garcia’s camp had retorted that the released amounts were a mere response to those who requested for financial assistance.
If there is no request, no monetary aid gets released.
Early this year, Garcia assured there will be equitable distribution of programs and projects to the Cebuanos, “in accordance with their needs.”
House representatives who filed bills in Congress seeking to divide Cebu had used as reason what they believe is Capitol’s unequal distribution of resources.
“To insist on equality among all towns, cities and districts only shows an utter lack of understanding of issues, concerns and needs of different towns, cities and districts of the entire province. We can’t talk of equality because different towns have different needs and different towns have different sizes,” she said in a previous interview. (JPM)
(July 5, 2005 issue)
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