BUDGET
MANILA,
SEPTEMBER 27,
2011 (TRIBUNE) By Angie M. Rosales - Government's attempt,
after two decades of devolving some of the Executive's power by instituting the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and with the current Malacañang
tenant constantly saying that the ARMM has been proven to be a failure despite
the infusion of almost P124 billion from the national budget in the last 20
years, money in the tens of billions will still be splashed by the current
administration to the ARMM.
This admission was made yesterday by Sen. Franklin Drilon, the chairman of
the Senate finance committee, as he disclosed that the Aquino government has
provided nearly P40 billion in total allocation to ARMM, the highest in the
history for the region.
"Our computation is that apart from the P12.4 billion presented under the NEP
(national expenditure program), the ARMM also gets from the other national
government agencies under the budget of DA (Department of Agriculture), and
others, an amount equivalent to P11.5 billion.
ARMM also gets an internal revenue allotment of P14.2 billion. There is the
PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) or the allocation of the legislators
for ARMM amuonting to P560 million. All in all, the NEP would call for an
allocation of P38.7 billion to the ARMM," Drilon said, citing the current budget
at only P11.8 billion.
It is believed that the Aquino administration, through Malacañang and its
budget secretary, Butch Abad, upped the entire budget allocations of the ARMM
due to the time when the budget was crafted, they were convinced that the ARMM
elections would not only be postponed, but that President Aquino would be
appointing the ARMM officials, who would have been his allies and partymates.
It is believed that which Malacañang asked of Congress, in relation to the
passage of the ARMM postponement law, which grants Aquino the power to appoint
the ARMM officials, was mainly to have control over the ARMM vote in time for
the 2013 senatorial elections, as well as the preparations for a Liberal Party
poll victory in 2016.
From the initial year of operation of ARMM at a budget of P792.8 million, the
total public fund devoted to the said region has amounted to P123.6 billion,
excluding the allocation of other national government agencies since 1991.
Taking the Palace line, the staunch Aquino ally in the Senate said: "What can
the ARMM show for such huge sums of money having been allotted to them? ARMM, as
a region, has remained the poorest in our country. It has the highest incidence
of poverty.
"Obviously, and this is my conclusion, ARMM, as an experiment in local
autonomy and devolution of powers, is a failure if you look at where the ARMM is
today and the sums of money that have been allocated by the national government
to ARMM," the senator said after hearing the proposed budget of the said region.
"It is a failure because of the kind of leaders who have been elected to the
leadership of the ARMM structure. The election, as a way of selecting officials
who will effectively govern, is a failure. We have not elected the right
leaders."
The finance committee chairman, who is the author of the law that paved the
way for the postponement of the ARMM polls last August and have them held
simultaneously with the 2013 elections, said it is for this reason – among many
others such as alleged blatant misuse of funds for the region by its previous
officials – that Malacañang is now trying to institute reforms.
"It is therefore a frustration on the part of the Aquino administration that
it is trying to institute immediate reforms in order to try to get our Muslim
brothers and sisters out of extreme poverty, but get frustrated by legal
obstacles, including TROs (temporary restraining orders) from the Supreme
Court," he said.
The ARMM poll postponement law was challenged before the high court that had
issued the TRO and had the elected officials stay on in their posts, until such
time the issue, on its merits, is resolved by the high court.
The Commission on Elections following the high court's TRO, has begun
preparing for the ARMM polls.
In the said budget hearing, senators were told that a special audit conducted
by the Commission on Audit (CoA) on the region, showed that from January
2008-December 2009, a total of P1.123 billion in payments to 112 suppliers and
contractors were questionable since these were either not supported with
documents or supported with documents that may be considered spurious.
Further, among the findings of the state audit agency it was indicated that a
total of P1.862 billion representing cash advances where P98.25 million was
encashed in one day. Drilon said this is "highly improbable" considering that
the purported payees were located in the different municipalities and provinces.
Also, transactions amounting to P865.8 million were fictitious as these were
denied by the suppliers or supported with spurious documents. Payments of
salaries and allowances amounting to P232.73 million was not properly documented
or were not even acknowledged received by the claimants, the CoA report said.
"The CoA finding is indeed mind boggling in terms of the corruption and this
corruption took place because the previous administration under (former
President) Gloria Arroyo tolerated the Ampatuans in Maguindanao. I have not seen
this report in all the budgets that I have been looking at in the last 12 years
that I have been in the Senate," Drilon added.
Drilon said that with such extent of corruption in the ARMM, the Aquino
administration sought reforms, particularly in the selection of leaders who are
committed to instituting reforms.
"There must be electoral reforms, for one, because obviously, the democratic
way of election that has been conducted in the past has not given us the right
leaders. That is why this is the frustration of President Aquino, that the
leaders who were elected are of such caliber that the welfare of our Muslim
brothers and sisters was farthest from their agenda, and at the bottom of their
agenda. It is their personal power and their personal wealth which were the
primordial interest of the previous officials," he said.
Reforms, the senator added, started with the postponement of the ARMM
elections and synchronization of such in the 2013 polls "which hopefully will
result in a better election of leaders" and the selection of officers in charge
who will have the capacity to institute the reforms.
Making matters worse, according to the lawmaker, is the fact that incumbent
ARMM officials appear to be incapable of instituting immediate reforms in the
troubled region, particularly in prosecuting officials liable for alleged
misappropriation of billions of pesos, the senator.
Drilon made the statement after Acting Regional Gov. Ansaruddin Adiong
admitted that they have passed the buck to the Department of Interior and Local
Government (DILG) in going after the Ampatuan clan.
"We ask the present leadership chaired by Governor Adiong. It is quite clear
to us that they are not capable of instituting these reforms because they have
passed on the problem to the DILG. We asked them, 'are you prosecuting these
people?' They said, 'it is now up to the DILG. We have made our
recommendations'," the senator said quoting the current ARMM governor.
Drilon emphasized though that even if cases have been turned over to the
DILG, incumbent officials can still be held accountable, especially those who
signed vouchers, checks, etc.
"The acting governor admitted that he did not do anything, not even
complained about this. The problem was passed on to the DILG, but this is
supposed to be an autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao," he said.
In the light of these developments, Drilon said said they intend scrutinize
very closely the ARMM budget.
"I did not see from the statements today of the incumbent OIC that he is
capable of making the appropriate reforms in the ARMM in order to prevent these
abuses from being committed again. He passed on everything to the DILG," he
said.
Drilon noted that there is no assurance that those who will be appointed as
OICs in ARMM will be able to institute reforms.
"But I think we can be certain that with the present electoral process that
we have, the election will not result in someone who would be able to correct
all of these shenanigans.
Nothing is certain in this world but we believe that given the fact that
there will be a vacuum in the leadership of ARMM because we have to institute
reforms particularly in the electoral process, we believe that there is a
greater chance of instituting reforms with the appointment of officials, rather
than having the elections now.
That is why we have to postpone the elections to 2013 to synchronize with the
national election," he said.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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