P81 M for autonomy once more with feelings

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Following the shocker of the Office of Civil Defense that local government units in the Cordillera bloated their reports of damages incurred in the region as a result of recent typhoons, comes this report now raising eyebrows among the media and cause-oriented groups.

The Regional Development Council has requested P81 million from the national government to “bankroll an effective an efficient grassroots level information and education campaign for regional autonomy in the next two years in order for the Cordillera to realize its long overdue dream of becoming an autonomous region.”

Cause-oriented groups said like in the OCD report, this bloated autonomy fund could be a prelude to graft and corruption. The RDC-Cordillera approved a resolution en banc submitting to President Arroyo “a total of P81 million funding requirement for 2010 and 2011 to ensure the widespread information campaign on the desire of the region to be under self-rule.”

Out of the said amount, the RDC said, P48 million should be incorporated in the RDC-Cordillera’s budget next year while P33 million would be included in the national budget in 2011.

To ensure inclusion of the funding in the national budget, the RDC created an advocacy and lobby group composed of the six governors and the city mayor of Baguio, capital town mayors and members of the RDC executive committee.

Aside from grassroots level information and education campaign on autonomy, the RDC said, the budget will be used to fund numerous capability-building measures to boost autonomy awareness. RDC officials also said prospective regional autonomy program management and workers could be hired for this in coordination with Malacañang, national government agencies, and congressmen.

Cordillera officials said there was need to conduct massive information and education campaign on autonomy prior to the crafting of a third Organic Act creating an autonomous region in the Cordillera.
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Cordillera officials should first make an accounting where the P16 million recently released by Malacanang for information campaign on Cordillera autonomy before asking for more taxpayers’ money like the P81 million.

This should be done for the sake of transparency. As things stand now, regional constituents are against autonomy, basing from surveys, due to fear that politicians would just make money out of the autonomous government and make a mess out of the present set-up which is administrative.

If these officials can’t even make an accounting of where the P16 million went, how are they expected to account for the additional P81 million if they don’t have a financial plan on how to use it” What more if they hold the coffers of the autonomous region? My informant asked? Apay pang pondo manen daytoy umay nga election?

Except for one advertisement in regional papers, that was just that. They held a so-called discourse on autonomy at the University of the Philippines-Baguio and butchered a pig or two in a barangay. As to the rest, maybe our good officials could explain to us naïve constituents how P16 million could be spent for such events. This issue won’t simply go away unless the RDC will sufficiently explain how it spent the money. After all, it is taxpayers’ money and people have a right to know what those in government did with it.