Velasco ally claims huge infra funds set for Cayetanos’ turf

MANILA, Philippines — The two districts of Taguig-Pateros under Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and his wife, Rep. Lani Cayetano, will receive a whopping P11.1 billion in infrastructure funds next year from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), according to Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr.

“This amount is too big considering that in terms of population, Taguig-Pateros is just 6 percent of Metro Manila,” Teves, an ally of Cayetano’s rival for the House leadership, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, said in a Zoom press briefing on Monday.

The items are earmarked in the DPWH budget for its central office in Metro Manila and district engineering office (DEO), Teves said, citing the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the precursor of the 2021 general appropriations bill now under deliberation in the House of Representatives.

Of the P25 billion in public works budget for DPWH-National Capital Region (NCR) for next year, “a whopping P7.92 billion, or 38 percent, goes to Taguig-Pateros,” Teves told reporters.

Higher than 15 regions

What’s more shocking, he said, was that the allocation for Taguig-Pateros “is higher than the DPWH funds allotted for each of the other 15 [of] the country.”

“The fund earmarked for Taguig-Pateros is bigger than the P7.26 billion for the entire Region 4A, or Calabarzon, which is the biggest region after NCR,” Teves said.

“Meanwhile, only P1.39 billion has been set aside for Region 13, or Caraga. How is that fair and equitable?” he said.

Under the 2020 budget, Teves said, Taguig-Pateros received infrastructure projects worth P10.03 billion—P7.12 billion from DPWH-NCR and P2.19 billion from the DEO. In contrast, Taguig-Pateros received only P2.4 billion and P3 billion in DPWH funds in 2018 and 2019, when Cayetano was not yet Speaker, he said.

Responding through a speech streamed on Facebook Live, Cayetano said Taguig-Pateros’ public works allocations ballooned because of a number of pending multibillion-peso projects in his and his wife’s districts.

“Camp Bagong Diwa is here. The Southern Police District is here. Fort Bonifacio is here. The Senate will be transferring here, and the Supreme Court will be coming here as well. There are so many works that are coming up,” Cayetano said in Filipino.

He said there were also huge allocations for right-of-way purchases to clear the way for the infrastructure projects.

Velasco camp’s lies

Cayetano said the allegations against him were lies being peddled by Velasco’s camp “to confuse and to trigger jealousy” among the members of the House.

Teves’ accusations were a follow-up to his earlier charges that Cayetano and selected allies would be cornering a big chunk of public works funds in the 2021 budget, stoking unrest in the House.

Teves’ earlier allegations sparked the leadership row in the House, with Cayetano and Velasco openly attacking each other despite a term-sharing agreement.

Under the deal brokered by President Rodrigo Duterte in July 2019, Cayetano would serve as Speaker for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress, with Velasco taking over for the remaining 21 months.

The feud over the budget and other internal issues, however, could derail the turnover of leadership on Oct. 14.

On Sunday, Velasco’s camp claimed that he had secured the backing of the majority of the House members for the speakership, but Cayetano’s allies on Monday sought to poke holes in that projection of superior strength, arguing that the Marinduque representative’s followers were only padding their numbers—to the extent of counting a dead congressman’s vote.

Deputy Speakers Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. and Dan Fernandez separately issued statements mocking Oriental Mindoro Rep. Salvador Leachon and Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza’s claim that Velasco had already secured some 160 votes in the 300-member House of Representatives.

Backing of 190

“All this lying is bound to catch up with them sometime, especially since we already have 190 real, actual, living members who have reaffirmed their support for the Speaker, and at least 30 more who have indicated that they will support Speaker Cayetano,” Villafuerte said.

The Camarines Sur lawmaker also taunted Velasco’s allies for supposedly adding Senior Citizens Rep. Francisco Datol Jr., who died of COVID-19 in August, in the count of party list lawmakers now in their fold.

“What’s even worse is that they still count Representative Datol who passed away last [August] among those who[m] they claim will vote for Velasco,” Villafuerte said.

Leachon and Atienza on Sunday said Velasco could count on the support of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), the party list bloc, and the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

On the other hand, Cayetano is backed by his Nacionalista Party, along with the National Unity Party, Lakas-CMD, Liberal Party and the minority bloc.

But Fernandez said the numbers did not add up since some members of Velasco’s PDP-Laban, including Deputy Speakers Johnny Pimentel and Aurelio Gonzales Jr., voted to reject the incumbent Speaker’s resignation and signed a manifesto supporting his continued leadership. INQ