IT’S good to hear that Sen. Ralph Recto and our very own Sen. Joker Arroyo who are both gunning for re-election in the May 2007 polls are pushing for the inclusion of P10 billion for the rehabilitation of the typhoon-ravaged Bicol region in the proposed 2007 national budget which until now is being hammered by the bicameral committee of both houses of Congress.
Recto, chair of the committee on ways and means, was quoted as saying that “recovery (for Bicol) could only begin if the budget is reconciled. No other people suffer more than from its (budget’s) delay than the Bicolanos.”
With the stalled approval of the 2007 budget, government has been operating on the rolled-over P907.56 billion budget since Jan. 1, this year. As a safety measure, however, Recto and Arroyo conceded that if Congress due to time constraint failed to include P10 billion rehabilitation fund in the new budget, the executive and the legislative branches could work on a “supplemental budget” to rehabilitate Bicol, and other areas hardest hit by the series of typhoons that buffeted the country in 2006.
Whichever, those two measures are better than the P10-billion promised thru a presidential fiat when Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited the calamity-stricken Bicolanos in Camarines Sur and Albay in the aftermath of the typhoon. The amount, until now, remains to be seen by the typhoon victims who are surviving by the generosity of the private sector and government agencies concerned. It seems nothing is moving yet to rehabilitate blown-off classrooms, collapsed bridges, and eroded roads due to the absence of funds needed to finance them. Their delay, as Sen. Recto pointed out, could be the fourth calamity, this time man-made, to hit Bicol in succession after Milenyo, Reming and Seniang.
As it is now, the President’s gesture of mercy proved to be as hollow as a marshmallow as far as the funds are concerned. They are nothing but lip service like those she promised for other big-time projects in Bicol, such as the development of Caramoan peninsula, the quick rehabilitation of the Andaya highway and the Philippine National Railways, the completion of the Pantao international terminal port, and the much-vaunted Bicol international airport. Local politicians, including House Appropriations Chairman Joey Salceda and Budget Secretary Nonoy Andaya, have to keep their butts up and about because they have to scratch for the funds that in the first place have not been included in the Annual Appropriations Act since 2005.
We believe Sens. Recto and Arroyo will work hard for their initiatives, lest Bicolanos would account them for their word when they come to ask for their votes in May 2007. In fairness to Sen. Arroyo, his heart is undoubtedly always for the Bicolano; though more than that, he has a larger perspective to look at when thinking of the general interest and welfare of every Filipino as senator of the Republic.
