SOME lawmakers seem to have forgotten the supposed funding requests they made from the Road Board after a list of such requests were released by the current leadership of the House of Representatives.
Former Majority Leader Rodolfo C. Fariñas Sr. of Ilocos Norte said he has not received any funding from the Road Board, which he wants to be abolished.
“My district has not received any Road Board fund under the present administration, even when I was the majority leader. As I said, it was [former] Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and I who initiated its abolition,” Fariñas told reporters.
“I just checked with DPWH Region 1 Director Ronnel Tan and he says that his office or my district did not receive any Road Board funds. In fact, it was Speaker Alvarez and I who were the principal authors for the abolition of the Road Board, and such was approved on third and final reading under our watch,” he said.
“We, in fact, transmitted the bill officially to the Senate, which adopted our version when it sensed that the new leadership of the HOR wanted to recall the bill, which it actually did,” he added.
‘Authenticate documents’
PARTY-LIST Rep. Jericho Nograles of PBA, meanwhile, asked the Road Board to authenticate the document released by Majority Leader Rolando Andaya showing the names of lawmakers who requested projects from the Road Board.
“This is my first time to see this list. I guess the Road Board has to authenticate it then,” he said.
“I have referred many projects nationwide to all agencies, including the Road Board. It is entirely up to the agencies to act on my referred projects. I do not know if there are approvals or disapprovals by the agencies,” he added.
According to Andaya, some of the lawmakers who requested projects from the Road Board include Fariñas, Nograles, Kabayan Party-list Rep. Ron Salo, Anac/IP Party-list Rep. Jose T. Panganiban, Isabela Rep. Napoleon Dy, Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr., MATA Party-list Rep. Tricia Nicole Q. Velasco-Catera, Batangas Rep. Ma. Theresa V. Collantes, Cavite Rep. Strike Revilla, Cavite Rep. Abraham Tolentino, Camarines Sur Rep. Salvio Fortuno and others.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno claimed that Andaya and other lawmakers have been pressuring him to release the Road Board funds with the forthcoming elections.
For his part, Andaya maintained that Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other key House leaders did not request for projects from the Road Board.
Andaya said Diokno should directly answer the supposed anomalies concerning the P75-billion “insertions” he made in the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget that allegedly benefited his in-laws in Sorsogon. Diokno has denied these were insertions, calling them instead as “augmentation.”
The House will begin its inquiry on the alleged budget controversies and questionable allocations by Diokno in the NEP on January 3, 2019 in Naga City.
Duterte influenced GMA?
ON the Road Board abolition, Andaya claimed late Wednesday that it was President Duterte who guided the leadership of Speaker Arroyo to withdraw the abolition of the Road Board.
In September, Andaya said he and Arroyo met President Duterte in Malacañang to get a clear signal about the proposal to abolish the Road Board.
Andaya clarified that the measure was not intended to abolish the Road Board, but to limit the controlling authorities of funds from seven-man to three-department, namely, the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation (DOTr), and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“I got to talk to the President personally on the matter. Secretary Diokno is just assuming. This is not the time to second-guess the President. Now is the time for Secretary Diokno to talk to the President and come clean on the issue. He should stop giving alternative facts. He should stop blind-siding the President,” he said.
Reconsider
MEANWHILE, Andaya said he still hopes that Diokno will reconsider his decision not to appear in the hearings to be conducted by the House Rules Committee on the DBM’s allegedly questionable allocations in the national budget, as he has a lot of explaining to do.
In the proposed 2019 national budget, for instance, Andaya said the House discovered recently that the DBM allocated more than P325 million for infrastructure projects in Casiguran, Sorsogon. These projects were included in the P75 billion inserted by the DBM in the NEP submitted to Congress.
“Interestingly, the P325-million new projects in Casiguran are part again of the Flood Control Program. These include the Himaoyon Flood Control [P75 million]; Lungib Seawall and Embankment [P80 million]; Somal-ot Seawall and Embankment [P100 million]; Cagpagol River Control [P45 million]; and Suji River Control [P25 million],” he said.