Thursday, August 14, 2008 Neda 7 director defends guv over Lapu reclamation
ILOILO CITY - THE chief of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) 7 yesterday defended Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia from a newspaper headline that allegedly dragged her into a personal fight relative to the proposed P10-billion Mactan reclamation project.
Marlene Rodriguez, Neda 7 chief, said Garcia sits in the Neda board as head of the RDC 7.
Rodriguez clarified that officials of the Regional Development Council (RDC) are also members of the Neda board so that all state agencies represented in the board are also represented in the RDC.
Garcia got irked over Cebu Daily News’ story that came out last Sunday titled “Lapu-Lapu needs Neda, not Gwen: No need for power struggle with RDC over reclamation dream.”
Rodriguez explained that before the Neda board will tackle items in the agenda, the proposed project will require a financial guarantee.
She said that the build-operate-transfer [BOT] law requires an endorsement from RDC.
“Kahit sabihin nila na hindi kasama ang RDC since it will only require Neda, they will still need funding from the National Government,” said Rodriguez.
She said that any project under the BOT scheme costing between P50 million and P300 million, needs to pass through RDC and the Neda board.
“Whether it is the Neda board, it still requires the endorsement of RDC because the project is more than P50 million,” she said of the reclamation project.
After the RDC endorsement, she said the project will be forwarded to the investment coordinating committee of the Neda technical board.
“The technical board has no approving power, only recommendatory,” said Rodriguez.
The approving power of the committee is only up to P300 million, she said.
“In all of these levels, we are the ones who evaluate the project. Hindi pwede lumampas sa amin (It should not bypass the us).” (GMD)
