MANILA, Philippines - The investigation into the alleged misuse of the annual P10-billion allocation to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will be conducted in January next year, after Congress ratifies the P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010, Speaker Prospero Nograles said.
“We’ll try to finish this budget first, after the bicameral conference committee has ratified it. When we come back in January next year, we will start scrutinizing the funds,” Nograles said.
He made the statement amid increasing clamor for a probe into the unexplained Ampatuan wealth.
After the heads of the powerful Ampatuan clan were detained in connection with the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre, it was discovered that they own several mansions in Mindanao and have amassed a great number of expensive high-powered firearms.
“We will look into how their (ARMM) budget was spent in 2009. We will use Congress’ oversight functions. What’s with ARMM that there should be a massacre just to stay there (in power)?” he said.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez heads the House oversight committee.
Why the national government keeps disbursing funds amid reported misuse of allocations will also be investigated, Nograles said.
Allocations for the expenses of the autonomous region are separate from the Internal Revenue Allotment. ARMM is governed by Zaldy Ampatuan, son of Maguindanao warlord Andal Ampatuan Sr.
“Why do you keep on releasing funds if there is no accounting?” Nograles asked.
It was earlier reported that some P1.5 billion in government funds have allegedly been spent for “ghost agrarian reform projects” in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.
Official documents released to the House of Representatives by the Department of Budget and Management showed that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has not submitted a list of projects financed by cash releases made by DBM in 2008 and 2009.
The DBM report, prepared by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., raised suspicions that a huge sum of government money may have been misused either by key officials of DAR or the ARMM.
Lawmakers have asked Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to report the projects financed by the government, and demanded a special audit by the Commission on Audit.
Governors and representatives of war-torn Mindanao also demanded accountability for the cache of firearms confiscated from Ampatuan properties.
“To be brutally frank, this is where they (warlords) get the funds for their private armies and their guns. We have to scrutinize the budget of the ARMM. We have to check how the money is being spent,” said Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas.
“If we are really honest and true, we have to do this so there will not be another Maguindanao massacre. There should be proper auditing and accounting. The Commission on Audit should be active,” he added.
Incumbent Lakas-Kampi-CMD president and Sarangani Gov. Miguel Rene Dominguez said the probe is necessary to determine the police and military officials who provide firearms and ammunition to warlords in the south.
North Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza said the disbursement of ARMM funds should be investigated because it falls under the authority of the president.
Sulu Gov. Abdul Sakur Tan, whose province is also under the ARMM, admitted he has no idea how much the annual ARMM budget is, but confirmed they have been receiving funds nonetheless.
“I have no idea how much it really is, but, yes, part of it reaches us. This (investigation on the ARMM fund) would be a very good opportunity for Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronnie Puno to put into perspective the situation in Mindanao,” he said.
Basilan’s first female governor Jum Akbar, whose area is also in ARMM, said her province is content with the funds it has been receiving.
ARMM a ‘systemic failure’
Administration standard-bearer and former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro yesterday described the ARMM as a “systemic failure” and suggested that a plebiscite be held in ARMM provinces to determine if autonomy in the region should remain.
Addressing a student-faculty forum at St. Paul’s College in Manila, he said other stakeholders such as foreign governments that helped hammer out the ARMM law should also be consulted on the possible abolition of the autonomous region.
“The results speak for themselves,” Teodoro said, referring to the recent spate of violence in the region as well as its current socio-economic standing.
“We must ask the ARMM’s constituents whether they prefer local autonomy or revert to national government supervision,” he added.
ARMM groups the provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Basilan and Lanao del Sur.
ARMM, with a population of 4.1 million based on the 2007 census, is one of the most impoverished areas in the Philippines.
It had a per capita gross regional domestic product of only P3,433 in 2005, 75.8 percent lower than the national average of P14,186. Average annual per capita income in the region was P89,000 in 2006, a third less than the Metro Manila average.
Poverty incidence in the region in 2003 was 45.4 percent, almost double the national average of 24.4 percent.
The President exercises general supervision over the regional governor. The regional government, in turn, can generate its own sources of revenue as well as collect taxes and fees according to the provisions of RA 9054.
ARMM was created in the 1990s through Republic Act 9054, giving autonomy to the Muslim minority seeking secession.
The government is currently rushing a peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is also seeking self-rule in some provinces.
Teodoro said the government has allocated up P12 billion for peacekeeping operations and economic development programs in ARMM, but the region remained depressed.
He said the government should learn from the outcome of granting autonomy to ARMM when confronted with decisions to give autonomy to any region or province in the country.
Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales earlier recommended having the plebiscite alongside the May 2010 elections. – With Paolo Romero, Jaime Laude