Lawmakers want say in P5-billion classroom fund

Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives want to politicize and meddle in the construction of P5 billion worth of classrooms nationwide this year.

The Senate-House conference committee on the 2009 budget, co-chaired by Sen. Edgardo Angara and Quirino Rep. Junie Cua, inserted a special provision in the appropriations bill allowing congressmen to have a say in the use of school building funds.

The provision reads: “Provided, that upon concurrence of the Representative of the district concerned, local government units (LGUs) with construction capability may be allowed to undertake the construction of school buildings within their locality.”

Many House members are believed to be meddling in and profiting from school building contracts and other infrastructure projects. The inserted provision will make such intervention official and legal.

Reached for comment, Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, a former journalist, said the special provision would “politicize” the building of additional classrooms throughout the country and especially in poor provinces like his.

“This means that LGUs with equipment to construct classrooms won’t be given the privilege to do so without the approval of their congressman or congresswoman,” he said. “If the governor or mayor is a political enemy of the congressman or congresswomen, that approval will be denied and school building contracts will be given to private contractors.”

Evardone, who is not on speaking terms with his congressman, Teodulo Coquilla, cited his own case.

He said Coquilla would not give him or mayors supporting him his go-signal for the construction of classrooms.

House members will give their approval only to mayors loyal to them or who promise to support them, he said.

“This special provision was inserted clearly in aid of congressmen’s reelection next year,” he stressed. He chided senators for “aiding” in their House counterparts’ reelection bid by agreeing to the provision.

Evardone pointed out that besides politicizing the school building program, the provision deprives the government and taxpayers of an opportunity to obtain value for money.

He said LGUs with enough equipment could build classrooms at a far lower cost that it would take a private contractor to do the job.

“They can source supplies from stores in their own towns, they can use personnel in their own engineering offices. LGUs will not make profits unlike private contractors,” he said.

Evardone, who is an officer of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, said they would bring up this issue with President Arroyo when local officials meet with her tomorrow (Tuesday).

“We will ask her to veto this special provision,” he added.

The Department of Education will have a total of P5 billion in school building funds next year. Of that amount, P2 billion is in its regular budget, while P3 billion is in the P10-billion “economic stimulus” fund created by the Senate.

Angara has been talking about a P30-billion (sometimes the amount goes up to P50 billion) economic stimulus fund. However, what is transparent in the proposed 2009 budget is a fund amounting only to P10,070,000,000.

The fund is supposedly aimed at helping the nation survive the crippling global financial and economic crisis.

But some senators and militant congressmen, including opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, have labeled it as an additional pork barrel for their colleagues.