Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III has thrown his full support to a call of Senator Rafael ‘’Raffy’’ Tulfo for the Senate to use the budget process to hold government agencies, particularly the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), responsible for losses of billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money due to corruption.
Pimentel made the manifestation following Tulfo’s privilege speech last night, May 16, about the P121-billion anomalous unfinished projects funded by the NIA from 2017 to 2022.
“I would advise NIA to better prepare to answer questions from all of us come the budget process,” Pimentel said.
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva also supported Tulfo’s calls for accountability and transparency on the alleged corruption issues hounding the NIA.
In his brief manifestation, Villanueva bared the irrigation agency's lack of capacity to spend allocated funds worth billions of pesos for irrigation projects that are supposed to help farmers nationwide.
"I think it is fair to ask: What is NIA's current status on our country's irrigation development as promised by Republic Act (RA) 10969 (Free Irrigation Service Act), and at the same time to answer issues of accountability and transparency," he said in English and Filipino.
Villanueva also emphasized the recent Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical snd Astronomic Administration (PAGASA) forecasts that El Niño, a seasonal abnormal weather pattern that causes droughts in the country, is likely to turn up as early as June this year, and may last up to the first quarter of next year.
"We have time constraints. We want to be sure that funds are used properly and wisely. Most of all, we want our citizens in the agricultural sector to benefit from it," the majority leader added.
The questioned NIA project was approved by a Deputy Administrator.
Tulfo said there appears to be a wide-scale corruption scheme that has persisted for far too long.
‘’Our government is fighting for every peso of revenue, and we keep on increasing taxes for everyone, while we waste so many funds feeding corruption and ‘padrino systems’ in government infrastructure programs.
‘’It might be a matter of profit para sa mga contractor at government officials na sangkot dito pero it’s a matter of life and death para sa mga nararapat na beneficiaries (for contractors and government officials linked to these irregularities but it is a life and death for the intended beneficiaries),’’ Tulfo stressed.
‘’To be clear, ang ating procurement laws at ang implementing rules and regulations for public bidding ay matagal ng inaabuso (our procurement laws and implementing rules have been abused far too long,’’ he added.
It is for these reasons that the Philippines is 117 out of 180 countries in the corruption index of the Transparency International, he said.
‘’Proud to be Pinoy talaga tayo kahit sa anong larangan ng palakasan, kahit sa kurapsyon pa (Filipinos are proud in the field of sports and even in corruption),’’ he pointed out.
Tulfo implored the Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Senator Francis ‘’TOL’’ Tolentino. ‘'one of the best lawyers this Senate has had, to join me in investigating this long-standing corruption issue.’’
‘’ I know that all of the members of the Senate will support my fight against corruption. Let’s start by cleaning up the National Irrigation Administration for the sake of our farmers and in order to improve our country’s food security,’’ he added.
Tulfo named the contractors involved in questionable construction of their NIA projects involving the tens and hundred of millions of pesos as ‘’Oscar Sarmiento Construction Inc. (Sta. Mesa Manila), R.D. Interior Junior Construction (Quezon City), J.D. Construction and Supply (Makati City), at (and) Brostan Construction.(Caloocan City).’’
He said some of these contractors were able to get contracts although they have not completed their first projects or used different names in their corporation papers although they have been blacklisted by NIA.
Sarmiento construction has not completed its P750 million contract that started in 2014 and has asked for termination ‘’pagkatapos makita na hindi man lang umaandar ang kanilang construction works (after it was found out that it has not even started), the senator added.
‘’Kinailangan ngayong saluhin ng R.D. Interior Junior Construction ang project sa halagang 333 Million a(It has to be given to R.D. Interior Junior Construction). Hanggang ngayon hindi pa din tapos ang project at tuluyang natutulog ang pera na nilaan sana para sa pagpapabuti ng ating agricultural industry (Up to now it is not yet finished and the government funds are unused and sleeping to the detriment of our agricultural industry),’’ Tulfo said.
‘’Iilan lamang to sa mga contractor na inyong makikita ngayon na nakatanggap ng ibat-ibang proyekto mula sa NIA sa kabila ng kanilang paulit-ulit na hindi pagtapos ng kanilang kontrata (They are but a few of the many contractors who were able to bag new contracts from NIA despite their having not failed to complete their contracts),’’ he added.