(Bong Raza)Raza and Monte sponsored it in 2007.
Board member Eleuterio Raza, Jr., SP minority floor leader of the incumbent Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), noted in 2007, that there were surplus funds from un-programmed appropriations from the 2004, 2005, and 2006 20% CDF budget. These were intended for projects and activities identified and enumerated in the Annual Investment Plans.
The funds, Raza noted, could be used “to operationalize the development thrusts and priorities of the present administration”. Raza, together with board member Leticia Monte thus proposed and convinced the other members of the SP to consolidate such unused funds “into a single fund” that could be “realigned to the different priority development projects of the Office of the Governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan”.
("social development initiatives...") Raza justified that because of the province’s “dismal growth” there was a need to “spearhead social development initiatives and relevant pro-poor programs in order to regain its lost momentum”. He then stressed that “a careful re-examination and validation of the activities and projects previously funded in the preceding fiscal years under the province’s 20% CDF miserably failed to yield positive results that would substantially change... the social landscape of the province”.
(Letty Monte & Allan Nepomuceno)Thus, on October 15, 2007, after the first 100 days of Gov. Bong Carrion as the new chief executive of the province, was issued Resolution No. 133, adopted by the 11th Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
The resolution was co-authored by Raza and Monte and attested to by Nepomuceno.
It was directed at “consolidating the balances of all unprogrammed appropriations of the annual investment plans for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006, and realigning/re-programming the same or portion thereof to the different priority development projects/programs of the Office of the Provincial Governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, prescribing the guidelines for their disposition and utilization and for other purposes.”
(photo of provincial leaders in better times with VP Noli de Castro))In part, the resolution reads:
“Whereas, in the midst of the multifarious problems and development concerns confronting the province of Marinduque owing to its dismal growth, high poverty incidents, a damaged environment and extensive devastation resulting from past natural and manmade disasters, there is pressing need to revive its moribund economy through substantial investments in infrastructure and agriculture and spearhead social development initiatives and relevant pro-poor programs in order to regain its lost momentum back to the path of self-sufficiency and sustainable development...
“Whereas, a careful re-examination and validation of the activities and projects previously funded in the preceding fiscal years under the province’s 20% CDF miserably failed to yield positive results that would substantially change the economic and social landscape of the province and thus resuscitate the hope of our people for a better life: hence, the need to re-align and re-program the balances of the appropriations of the Annual Investment Plans of the immediately preceding years in order to operationalize the development thrusts and priorities of the present administration.”
Raza-Monte specified ECCD instructional materials
The Raza-Monte-sponsored resolution stated that the consolidated fund should be re-aligned to some priority development projects “of the Office of the Governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan” specifically identifying the following:
Php 2.9-million for Legislative Development Initiatives Augmentation Fund for the Office of the Vice-Governor and SP members (Php 500,000 for the OVG and Php 300,000 each for SP members); Php 5-million for Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Programs (province-wide), for “purchase of instructional materials and other teaching aids” and Php 250,000 as incentives to day-care workers, among others.
(Jojo Alvarez)Implemented in 2007, continued on in 2008 and 2009, following the same procedure of consolidating the balances of unprogrammed appropriations during the preceding year/s, and re-alignment through approved SP resolutions, with no less than the original minority sponsors and majority affixing their signatures, the ECCD project for purchase of instructional materials and teaching aids was implemented and everybody was happy.
Forty-two learning development packages were distributed to prioritized day-care centers in Marinduque based on assessment and barangay requests for inclusion in the program. Carrion included it as part of his SOPA 2009 address, also acknowledging additional financial assistance and support received from Sen. Loren Legarda and Sen. Lito Lapid, with funds coming from the two senator’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
(Nancy Arca-Iturralde)Election changed the mood and caused great divide
Came election year this year, 2010, the mood then changed abruptly. Approval of the 20% CDF budget of the provincial government was delayed in the Sanggunian during the first quarter for various bureaucratic reasons. Then the dizzying election campaign and scorching heat wrought by black propaganda and mudslinging came to pass in the country’s first national and local automated polls.
At the same time, almost no projects could be pursued prior to the electoral exercise because of government restrictions on procurement activities during the election period from March 26 to June 10.
Raza, Monte and Nepomuceno on the opposite side of the fence did what they were expected to do in local partisan politics and played their roles to the hilt. Carrion lost in the elections, together with his Lakas-Kampi party allies consisting majority in the Sanggunian (with the exeption of Iturralde who ran for Gasan councilor). Incumbent congresswoman Carmencita Reyes of Liberal Party won over Carrion for the gubernatorial post, and allies Raza and Nepomuceno were re-elected as board members.
(Saria Zoleta & Yoli Querubin) The term of all incumbent officials ends on June 30, 2010. On June 2, 2010 Resolution No. 822 was adopted by the SP approving the request of Gov. Carrion for the re-alignment of the savings on the annual investment program 20% development fund from the years 2007-2010 to the same day-care program.
(Tom Pizarro & Bong Carrion)Majority of Sangguniang Panlalawigan supported it, led by presiding officer, Vice-Gov. Tomas N. Pizarro and board members, Ildefonso delos Santos, Yolando Querubin, Cesari Zoleta, Jose Alvarez, Nancy Arca-Iturralde and Mark Joseph de Leon.
It was seen as a continuation of what was already decided since 2007, one that merely repeated the same procedures applied in that year and the years thereafter on the conduct of procurement and distribution of the relevant learning development packages for the day-care centers. But the triumvirate of Raza, Monte and Nepomuceno (minority), would now in 2010, cry wolf and raise hell for "improper and unauthorized realignment of public funds" that they sponsored in the first place for the purchase of those learning development packages in question.
Right after a startling divide created by an election such as the one that transpired here, the scheming, mischievous and ugly side of local politics opted to reveal its gnashing fangs through the medium of those power-stricken. It was apparently aimed to deliver a coup de grace to those who have suffered and probably are still agonizing from defeat.
(cont'd)
No comments:
Post a Comment