Questionable P19M Cordi CCT funds and Tinoc hydro project

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

The Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Cordillera has some explaining to do as P19 million in conditional cash transfer (CCT) funds for the region didn’t reach beneficiaries.

The Commission on Audit discovered the amount was supposed to benefit at least 6,300 children for six months but for still unknown reasons, the money didn’t reach them. There are around 59,000 family-beneficiaries of CCT program in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

CCT beneficiaries receive P500 in monthly allowance for health and nutrition expenses, while P300 is given per child for educational expenses. A household with three children receives a maximum of P1,400 a month. 

Now, the supposed beneficiaries are wondering where the funds went.Pundits are asking why these were not released when a lot of people are going hungry.Top officials of the agency in the region should explain where the money P19 million went.

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Despite the discovery made by the COA on the matter, the National Economic and Development Authority-Cordillera said basing from assessment made by Philippine Statistics Authority-National Coordination Board in the region, implementation of PantawidPamilyang Pilipino Program (by the DSWD)and other social services included in Regional Development Plan helped decrease poverty in Cordillera.

The NEDA said from 19.2 percent family poverty incidence in the region in 2009, some 595 families left poverty line in 2012 decreasing family poverty by 17.5 percent.

Cordillera DSWD officials said the agency is working to decrease poverty in the region part of development agenda in government’s “millennium development goals.”

The DSWD recently launched nationwide“Kaya Ko ang Pagbabago!”campaign. In Baguio, it was held Nov. 27 at Regional Haven in Baguio with public viewing of music video, media conference and campaign on social media.

The Kaya Ko ang Pagbabago! campaign aims to highlight positive changes in the lives of the vulnerable and poor, DSWD officials said.

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We are not against programs of the DSWD but government funds should be used judiciously. From the grapevine, the region’s DSWD reportedly holds seminars and workshops almost every week in far areas like Boracay in the south and Laoag City in the north like other government agencies.

Can’t these agencies hold seminars where they hold office so public funds would not be wasted on transportation, food, lodging, gifts for speakers, among others?

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Indigenous people(IP) communities  from Tinoc, Ifugao are calling for stop of a mini-hydroelectric project in the ancestral domain of the municipality claiming  there were irregularities in “free, prior,informed consent” (FPIC) process and in  the project’s memorandum of agreement.

The Igorota Foundation Inc., in recent media forum here brought Tinoc IP communities’ concern to the public.

Present during the forum were community leaders of barangay Tukukan, Impugong, Binablayan, and Eheb who presented their sentiments and called for  support to uphold their rights under the IP Reform Act and to respect  their decision to reject the mini-hydro power plant in their ancestral domain.

Lawyer Maria Lulu Reyes of Igorota Foundation Inc., said the project’s FPIC cannot be considered free-informed as IP communities in Tinoc, which is a single ancestral domain, are divided on their decision. 

Some concerns raised by opposing  indigenous cultural communities (ICC) and IPs were insufficient consultation with affected land owners, lack of information on economic benefit sharing, lack of understanding of the MOA because it was written in English and signed hastily by elders and lack of information on  tunneling scheme.

Reyes said several IPs in Tinoc have submitted a written manifestation of opposition as well as certificate of retraction to the project that calls for withdrawal of the certificate of precondition (CP) issued by the National Commission on Indigenous People  to rescind the MOA between the company and community and to stop construction of the mini-hydro project.

The NCIP awarded the CP for the mini-hydroelectric project in Tinoc to Santa Clara Power Corporation (SCPC) on May 12, 2009. This is valid for eight years and three separate MOAs were executed for the project.

In April 2011, SCPC partnered with AC Energy Holdings Inc. and one of their ventured companies – Quadriver Power Corporation, was assigned to implement the project in Tinoc and conducted the second FPIC from June 2011 and the process was finished in August 2013.

It was during this FPIC process where some ICCs/IPs in Tinoc reportedly started questioning the project as they discovered there will be underground tunneling that will affect other barangays aside from the project area of Eheb, Poblacion and Binablayan.

This space is open to reactions from SCPC or those in favor of the mini-hydro project.