Mar hit for non-implementation of disaster mitigation projects in 2013

MANILA, Philippines – The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday hit Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II for non-implementation of P42.9 million worth of disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) projects in 17 regions in 2013 during his term as interior secretary.

Binay’s camp said the projects could have minimized casualties caused by calamities like Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Rico Quicho, Binay’s spokesperson for political affairs, said based on the Commission on Audit (COA) 2013 report released just this year, only 34.5 percent or P33,071,955.88 of the P76 million allocation for the DRRM activities of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) was utilized.  

Quicho said according to the COA report, 65.5 percent of DRRM projects worth P42,928,044.12 were not implemented, resulting in the “delay in the process of strengthening capacities of communities to effectively respond to and recover from impacts of likely imminent disasters; thus LGU level of preparedness was low.”

“What is sad is the fact that COA identified the lack of coordination and monitoring of project activities among the implementing offices as the reason the DRMM projects were not implemented,” he said. 

Quicho also claimed that P10 million donated for victims of Typhoon Pablo were not used in 2013.

“The victims of Typhoon Pablo experienced the insensitivity and ineptness of the administration,” he said. 

“Secretary Roxas saw our country end up as the worst hit country in the world in 2012 as reported by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Yet Secretary Roxas’ agency, the DILG, failed to prepare local government units for disasters despite the billions of pesos at his disposal. If he failed in that, is he really prepared to lead the country?” he added.

Roxas was appointed interior secretary in 2012, replacing Jesse Robredo, who died in a plane crash. Roxas lost to Binay in the 2010 vice presidential elections. Both of them are seeking the presidency in 2016.