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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Drilon slams gov't over P1.44-T stalled, idle funds; describes it as 'criminal neglect'

Drilon slams gov't over P1.44-T stalled, idle funds; describes it as 'criminal neglect'

Published Dec 23, 2021 02:03 pm

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Thursday criticized the government over the P1.44-trillion worth of infrastructure projects that the Commission on Audit (COA) had earlier flagged.

COA has called out 17 government agencies over delayed, abandoned and idle infrastructure projects amounting to P1.44-trillion. On top of it, the state audit agency also flagged the unfinished infrastructure projects implemented by various state universities and colleges amounting to P1.1-billion.

Drilon described it the worse waste of taxpayers’ money in history. “This is sheer delinquency and criminal neglect. What a total waste of public funds,” he said in a statement.

“We have P1.44-trillion funds for various infrastructures sitting somewhere while thousands of families have no homes and food this Christmas,” Drilon lamented.

“We have these mammoth funds for projects that are stalled for years while the government is saying it is scrimping on funds to provide immediate aid to typhoon-affected cities, municipalities and provinces,” the minority senator further said.

Drilon said the funds should be realigned to assist the victims of Typhoon Odette and be used for recovery and rehabilitation programs.

“We borrow funds to cover the deficits in the budget. We borrow funds for vaccines. We have no funds for the typhoon victims. But the COA finds P1.44 trillion in idle funds? These funds should be immediately re-aligned to provide funds to typhoon victims,” he reiterated.

The former justice secretary recalled that during the plenary debates on the proposed 2022 national budget, it was put on record that the national government’s outstanding debt could total P11.7-trillion by the end of 2021.

He said the agencies responsible for the stalled projects may also face administrative and criminal complaints.

“They should be held responsible. The officials responsible should be charged for causing injury to the public because of their reckless imprudence,” he said.

Drilon also lamented that the government devoted so much of its resources to infrastructure and defense sectors instead of using the limited funds to augment the budget for social and health service sectors.

“Our social and health services took a backseat precisely to fund these infrastructure projects that the COA found delayed and idle,” he pointed out.

“In light of this, the government must examine its prioritization, once and for all, because much of the spending stimulating are meant to boost the supply side, particularly the infrastructure project, and the social amelioration portion is not given the stimulus necessary in order that there can be spending on the part of the poor sector of our society brought by the pandemic,” the opposition senator reiterated.

Related Tags

Franklin Drilon Commission on Audit (COA) government agencies Infrastructure projects criminal neglect public funds
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