7 towns in CamSur’s PDA area still poor, says Villafuerte

NAGA City, Philippines—Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymund Villafuerte described the Partido Development Administration (PDA) as a “failure,” claiming that seven of 10 towns under its jurisdiction have the highest number of poor households in the province.

“Seventeen years after it was created by law, PDA, which is tasked to accelerate the development of 10 towns in Camarines Sur, has failed to fulfill its mandate and has nothing much to show, except for an indebtedness of over a billion pesos, as well as losses amounting to almost half a billion pesos over a six-year period alone, from 2004 to 2009,” the governor said in a statement.

Villafuerte cited latest data from Department of Social Welfare and Development’s National Housing Targeting System (NHTS) for Poverty Reduction that pegged the percentage of identified poor households in the towns of Siruma at 76.08 percent; Garchitorena, 79.90 percent; Tinambac, 71.71 percent; Caramoan, 69.44 percent; Sañgay, 67.14 percent; Goa, 66.14 percent; and Lagonoy, 64.78 percent.

But according to Villafuerte’s rival, Representative Arnulfo Fuentebella, PDA has been hailed as a model for district development planning and that it was being replicated in other congressional districts.

He added that PDA had been recognized by the Congressional Planning and Budget Department (CPBD) as having the best district planning, and was presented to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in 2009 as a model to strengthen the CPBD.

Fuentebella added that the PDA has also received a Civil Service Commission (CSC) certificate of recognition as finalist in the 2010 Search for Outstanding National Government Agency and Accreditation under the CSC Agency Accreditation Program.

Villafuerte, however, said the continued existence of PDA has come under question after it was included in the list of underperforming government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCCs) receiving subsidies from the national government.