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Sunday, December 19, 2004
Barangays to feel pork barrel pinch
By Linette C. Ramos
CEBU -- Instead of P1 million for each village, 46 barangays in Cebu City's north district will get only P500,000 from Representative Raul del Mar's Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for 2005, which may result in fewer projects.
Del Mar (Cebu City, north) said Saturday that the cut is a result of the reduction of their PDAF from P70 million to P40 million, in compliance with the austerity measures of the Arroyo administration.
With P23 million going to the barangays, not much will be left for the legislator's other programs.
Of the remaining P17 million, P10 million will go to his health program for indigent patients at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), while the remaining P7 million will go to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
"I used to give the barangays P1 million each but because of the austerity measures, it will be reduced to P500,000, which they should use for barangay projects, provided these projects are approved by the multi-sectoral barangay assembly," del Mar said.
Crisis intervention
The legislator hopes to release the funds for the barangays, VSMMC and the DSWD by February next year. The crisis intervention fund will be spent for demolition, fire and flood relief operations, del Mar said.
It will only be in February that the Department of Budget and Management can issue notices of cash allocation, which is an advisory that funds can be drawn as payment for contracts.
So far, the projects identified by the barangays are day care, health, sports and multi-purpose centers, drainage and flood control projects and road improvement projects.
On top of his PDAF, del Mar said he will also use his additional funds for the continuing school building projects in the different barangays, subject to the approval of the city schools division.
Additional funds
Half of the funding requirement for his proposed third flyover at the F. Cabahug St. and Cardinal Rosales Ave. will also be charged to the additional funds he will get from the National Government, he added.
House debates have concentrated on how the funds will be used efficiently as the government battles to trim the budget deficit.
The 2005 national budget contains the line-item budget system, which is aimed at bringing "full transparency and full responsibility to the allocation of government resources."
Full identification
House Speaker Jose de Venecia said the line-item budget system means "full identification of the district projects and the amounts involved in order to erase suspicions of corruption associated with the lump-sum system."
The legislators' pork barrel funds have been hounded by corruption.
For next year's budget, Malacaņang asked that congressmen and senators take a cut in their PDAF so that the limited funds will not be spent on basketball courts, waiting sheds and speed bumps, as previously practiced.
(December 19, 2004 issue)
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