BAGUIO CITY – Filipinos were deprived by the national government of the implementation of various development projects and the improved delivery of basic services over the past two years with the reversion of more than P1.2 trillion from the national budget to the national coffers without being used for the benefit of the greater majority of the populace, Senatorial candidate and Leyte 1st district Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said here Sunday.
The unopposed lawmaker said that at the end of 2014, some P500 billion previously earmarked to fund the implementation of priority development projects reverted to the general fund after the same were not used for its programmed projects while at the end of 2015, more than P700 billion in public funds were again reverted by the Aquino administration to the national treasury which does not speak of sound financial management.
“We cannot understand why the administration has to under spend the programmed budget over the past two years when people, especially those living in the countryside, need substantial funds to improve the state of infrastructure in their respective areas and improve the delivery of basic services to allow people to have greater access to health, education and nutrition,” Romualdez stressed.
Instead of having under spent the national budget over the past two years, The Leyte lawmaker said the saved funds should have been used to bankroll the implementation of more infrastructure projects interconnecting farm to market roads to the improved national roads, provide subsidies for farm inclement used by the farmers in order to lower production cost of agricultural crops, expand the government’s health, education and nutrition projects that will make today’s youth healthy and educated in order to become productive citizens of the country.
According to Rep. Romualdez, the present administration failed to fulfill its promise to improve the lives of Filipinos because the mere fact that it failed to appropriately spend the budget earmarked for development projects and the improvement of basic services deprived the people of better living condition in the remote villages.
He explained the over P1.2 trillion worth of projects that were not implemented over the past two years could have made a difference in depressed areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao over the past two years which could have contributed in uplifting the living condition of a greater number of Filipinos compared to what is currently being boasted by the administration as their accomplishments in the implementation of development projects and the improvement in the delivery of basic services.
Romualdez claimed depriving the Filipino people of the projects that should have been implemented in their respective places in order to improve the state of infrastructure and putting in place the reforms to cascade the benefits of basic services is a mortal sin against the people which will not be replicated once given the chance to serve the country as one of the elected legislators during the May 9, 2016 general and automated elections, thus, the electorate must now be circumspect in deciding on who to vote during election day so that the sins of the present administration will not be repeated in the future which might affect the country’s path towards robust economic growth.
By Dexter A. See
