The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Luis Leoncio
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) under Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, a key member of President Aquino’s Liberal Party (LP), is now in control of the billions intended for the rehabilitation of the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).
And the Commission on Audit (COA) said in a report that much of the funds have yet to reach their intended beneficiaries, as some of them were used up by government offices or are being kept in banks.
The turnover of the administration of the Yolanda funds to the DBM and of the Yolanda projects to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) took place after the sudden resignation of former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson as presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery (PARR) last February.
Many say Lacson resigned in frustration because he was never given the power to carry out the full mandate of his office.
In a recent forum at Club Filipino, Lacson expressed worries over the current setup. He said the government should maintain a permanent body to keep track of the projects and funds for the rehabilitation of the victims of Yolanda, which struck the country two years ago.
Lacson said the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) has funded a project called eMPATHY, or electronic Management Platform Accountability and Transparency Hub, to track 18,648 Yolanda projects.
“The last time I heard was that the monitoring system was also transferred to the DBM,” Lacson said.
“How can that work? It was DBM, which has been restricting the release of funds; now they’ll be the ones tracking these. It doesn’t look right,” he added.
The government is now being asked to account for most of the P171 billion in funds that should have been intended for the relief and rehabilitation of areas devastated by the strongest storm ever to hit the planet.
The COA, in a report on the Yolanda rehabilitation funds, said hundreds of millions of pesos never reached the survivors of the catastrophe. Government offices used them up for operations instead, or kept them in banks.
More ironic is that money from the government’s supposed Quick Response Funds (QRF) never reached those affected by Yolanda.
The COA report said the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) had a total of P692.77 million in available QRF for 2013, while the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), which is administered by the OCD, had received a total of P48.82 million in donations for the typhoon victims.
But not a single centavo of these reached them, according to the COA.
The OCD also kept in banks more than P48.8 million in local and foreign donations for Yolanda victims, the COA found.
“When I left (as rehab czar) I strongly recommended an agency to be maintained, instead of putting up ad hoc bodies each time a calamity strikes,” Lacson said.
Lacson relates that even during a dialogue with President Aquino when he submitted his resignation letter, Mr. Aquino promised to study his recommendation to designate a permanent body on the rehabilitation of disaster areas.
Lacson said six regions were hit by Yolanda and the tracking of the funds before he left showed from 20-percent to 50-percent implementation of rehabilitation projects among agencies.
“I left with the projects, already lined up: P50 million for 2014, P80 million for 2015 and P35 million for 2016 for 18,648 projects, programs and activities (PPAs). These are all ready for implementation,” Lacson said.
“I have lost track of the implementation of the projects, so I want to ask the President how many of the planned 205,000 houses for resettlement and schools were set up. I have not heard anything from the government about those projects,” Lacson said.
National Treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, who is also the convenor of Social Watch Philippines (SWP), said the budget watchdog that she heads completed a seven-month study sponsored by Christian Aid to track the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan (CRRP) funds.
Unclear sources
In its review of the Yolanda funds, SWP found unclear sources of funds for the P170.9-billion requirement for the rehabilitation of Yolanda-affected areas under the CRRP, despite the law providing that the funds should come from the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund, the regular budget, and foreign donations only.
Briones said the SWP review of DBM data, the funds were from the 2012, 2013, and 2014 budgets and unprogrammed funds coming from uncertain sources were earmarked for some.
“Yolanda funds could even be mixed with those allocated for other disasters. When the DBM announced that it had been able to release P70.9 billion in June this year, the data it presented included appropriations for areas affected by other disasters such as the Bohol earthquake in 2013 and other typhoons,” Briones said.
Mr. Aquino approved CRRP in October last year, with the biggest estimate of funding requirements for resettlement, at P75 billion, followed by infrastructure (P35 billion), livelihood (P33 billion), and social services (P26 billion).
The National Housing Authority had the biggest funding requirement at P72 billion, followed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (P25 billion), Department of Agriculture (P10 billion), Philippine Coconut Authority (P10 billion), and Department of Education (P9 billion).
At P39 billion, Leyte had the biggest funding requirement among the local government units, since it had also sustained the greatest damage and had the most number of affected people. It was followed by Iloilo (P22 billion), Tacloban (P15 billion), Northern Cebu (P14 billion), and Capiz (P13 billion).
Abad said the rehabilitation of areas affected by Yolanda remains an administration priority—both in the execution of key Yolanda projects and in the allocation of funds to support all rehabilitation initiatives—with a double emphasis on “building- back-better” and rapid post-disaster aid.
The DBM also said the national government’s rehabilitation program for Yolanda-stricken areas is supposed to be independent of political influence or affiliation, and that the Aquino administration’s post-disaster aid is focused entirely on assisting Yolanda victims.
“Our biggest concern lies in protecting the welfare of Yolanda victims, both in the immediate and long term. That is, in fact, reflected in the national budget, which provides several funding sources for Yolanda aid. These fund sources are far from uncertain; they are at once generous and reliable,” Abad said.
“Political pressure is also not necessary for this administration to exert all efforts for Yolanda victims. We understand the urgency of the problem, as Social Watch itself clearly does. But we need to balance the need for rapid aid with our long-term disaster-management goals. Of course, we welcome criticism by concerned groups, but that criticism should not mislead, and neither should it be supported by erroneous data,” he added.