For the first time, Mrs. Arroyo spoke out yesterday in defense of her administration’s P8-billion budget for local government units following accusations that the allocation was a reward for those who supported her during the political crisis.
She maintained the money is part of her administration’s poverty-reduction program and meant to promote development in the countryside and ordered the internal revenue allotment release to prove it.
"What they say in the media, that these are pork barrel (funds) for local governments, it’s not. The problem is when we allocate funds for infrastructure and social services, they call it pork barrel," Mrs. Arroyo told a gathering of local officials during a ceremony launching her administration’s P5-billion "Kilos Asenso" program.
A P3 billion development program for barangays that were ravaged by the Muslim and communist insurgencies rounds out the package.
"What do they want? Spend the budget only for salaries (of government employees)? If the budget is only for the salaries, will our country improve? We need program funds. And we thank the LGUs for activating Kilos Asenso," Mrs. Arroyo said.
Bohol Gov. Eric Aumentado, president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, said the release of the P17.5-billion internal revenue allotment is the balance of the P20 billion that they were supposed to get during the 2000-2001 fiscal year.
"These are not concessions or perks," Aumentado said.
San Fernando, Pampanga Mayor Oscar Rodriquez added that the unreleased IRA share and shortfall already amount to nearly P100 billion as of last year.
Albay Vice Gov. James Calisin said the release of internal revenue allotment funds would be a great help to local governments.
He also rejected opposition charges that the P8-billion development fund is payback for supporting Mrs. Arroyo during the failed opposition-led impeachment bid against her.
"The Kilos Asenso program would surely address the needs of our constituents, unlike in the past when programs were based on the capriciousness of officials. We consulted our constituents about their needs, most of which was electrification, livelihood and other basic needs," Calisin said.
Mrs. Arroyo said the objective of the P8-billion program is to spread development from major cities. "I’m dead serious in taking power from the center to the countryside," she told local officials.
"That is why I reaffirm our commitment to reward LGUs with greater powers that are due you via a revolutionary constitutional change," referring to her initiative to amend the Constitution and change the country’s form of government from a presidential to a federal, parliamentary system.
Mrs. Arroyo believes that a parliamentary system would remove legislative gridlock and speed up passage of needed legislation.
Local officials favor a federal system because they have long been dissatisfied with "imperial Manila."
Unlike pork barrel funds allocated to lawmakers that may be used for pet projects, Kilos Asenso funds would be used for specific purposes such as agriculture, farm-to-market roads and funding small businesses.
"Let us use the Kilos Asenso to create investments and 10 million jobs including microfinance. This year, almost P1 billion of microfinance has been released to various regional and provincial conduits that will re-lend money to micro-entrepeneurs," Mrs. Arroyo told the gathering. — With Paolo Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe