No-flood quip lands Fernando in hot seat
A House oversight committee hearing is botched when Typhoon Helen’s rains submerge streets, stalling resource persons; now, five lawmakers want Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando to explain billions of pesos for flood control down the drain.
The legislators from the National Capital Region said they would grill Fernando when Congress resumes sessions.
The group led by Parañaque City Rep. Roilo Golez said the probe on MMDA’s spending would be held right after President Arroyo has delivered her State-of-the-Nation Address on July 28.
The President is expected to present the 2009 national budget including the appropriations for the MMDA and its projects.
But Fernando challenged Golez to present evidence, insisting that he would stay put despite moves to oust him.
“What multi-billion peso fund is he talking about? Give us the data,” he said. “I am not resigning.”
Joining the Fernando-bashing are Rep. Rufino Rossano Biazon of Muntinlupa City; Rep. Oscar Malapitan, Caloocan City; Rep. Vincent Crisologo, Quezon City; and Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo, Valenzuela City.
The House’s Metro Manila Development committee under Quezon City Rep. Maryann Susano will look into the agency’s expenditures while appropriations committee holds a separate inquiry when Congress starts hearings for the 2009 national budget.
The quintet was reportedly dismayed over low-lying sections of the metropolis went underwater on Wednesday as classes were suspended, business ground to a halt and a hearing of the House committee on oversight wherein floods got in the way of resource persons going to the Batasan.
“Bayani Fernando bragged on Aug. 10, 2007 that there would be no more floods this year,” Golez said.
Fernando denied making a promise to solve this year the problem of a sinking metropolis.
“I never said by 2008 Metro Manila will be flood-free. What I said is that floods will be reduced [by] efforts to dredge all drainage systems and waterways, and relocate informal settlers.”
Malapitan, Crisologo and Gunigundo said their districts were always “at the mercy of the floods” because of poor drainage.
Gunigundo cited tidal conditions, a “natural phenomenon” that also hit neighboring Malabon and Navotas, and some parts of Caloocan City.
Gunigundo and Biazon noted that Fernando has become “very visible” in disaster areas like where a team from MMDA helped clear streets of mud and other debris following Typhoon Frank’s visit last month.
“Although everyone has to do his share to help those who are in need, it should not be at the expense of the people in Metro Manila,” Gunigundo said.
“Fernando is not fully concentrated on the problems of Metro Manila,” observed Biazon. “He is too busy going around the country on personal political sorties... even the things he’s doing in Metro Manila is geared towards enhancing his political agenda,” he added.
Fernando has publicly announced his plan to join the 2010 presidential derby under Lakas-CMD. Rio N. Araja Back to top
BF is a liar -- Golez
http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?issue=2008-07-21&sec=5&aid=67328
Rep. Roilo Golez (Ind., Parañaque), his arch-critic, believes so.
He lambasted Fernando yesterday for what he described as the MMDA chairman’s repeated denials that he never vowed to stop the perennial problem of flooding in Metro Manila this year.
Golez also chided Fernando for claiming that MMDA has only a P200-million annual allocation for flood control, a statement that the lawmaker said could easily be belied by official records from the Office of the President which has direct supervision over the agency.
Citing two occasions when Fernando made his vow to end flooding in the metropolis, the congressman recalled that the MMDA chairman first assured President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 9, 2005 that with the onset of the rainy season, the incidence of flash floods in Metro Manila will in all probability, now be a thing of the past.”
Golez said he was present when Fernando made such statement as he was still the President’s national security adviser.
In the second incident, the solon cited the newspapers’ headlines on Aug. 10, 2007 quoting Fernando that there would be no more floods in Metro Manila “next year (2008)” which, Golez said, proved to be “very false” because of the heavy floods in several areas of the metropolis, disrupting businesses and delaying the proceedings of a congressional investigation.
BUSTED!!! BUKING!!!
Golez said Fernando lied for claiming that the MMDA has only P200 million per year on flood control, explaining that the amount is what is only projected on the agency’s budget for the project in the General Appropriations Act.
The MMDA, according to Golez, receives between P200 million and P300 million a year from the internal revenue allotment (IRA) as provided for in Section 10 of Republic Act 7924.
The amount is apart from the P700 million to P800 million that the agency receives from the 17 cities and municipalities of Metro Manila from their own IRA, he said.
Golez said that on Aug. 17, 2007, then Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye announced that President Arroyo has transferred the flood control funds of the Department of Public Works and Highways-National Capital Region (DPWH-NCR) offices to the MMDA to enable the agency perform its “mandate of flood control, garbage collection and traffic management.”
Altogether, Golez estimated that MMDA has more than P1 billion in its disposal a year and “several billions since he became chairman in 2002.”
Golez said that even Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. has confirmed that the IRA of the metropolis reached P218 billion last year, giving a bigger share for the LGUs and MMDA.
Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said his city alone gives P250 million a year from its IRA but Fernando, according to Golez, claimed is “hardly enough for garbage collection.”
Despite the huge amounts of money from IRA and other sources, Golez wondered why Fernando has continued to ask for “a higher budget” for the agency.
Raul S. Beltran
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