Sen. Nancy Binay Senate PRIB file photo
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) should avert the expected fund depletion of state-run Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF) by reviewing the organization’s projects and activities, said Senator Nancy Binay.
Binay, head of the Senate tourism panel, sounded the call on Thursday after the Commission on Audit (COA) said in a report there is “uncertainty in the ability of NPF to continue its operations in the future, considering its inability to raise additional or alternative sources of revenue as funds for its operations would be fully depleted within the next five to six years.”
Binay said the DOT, which is the NPF’s supervisory department, should review the P1.5-billion cultural theme park of the NPF, which is a public-private partnership project that the National Economic Development Authority had approved.
She backed the COA in recommending that the NPF explore alternative sources of revenue for its operations given its current fiscal standing.
“Kasi kung walang konkretong plano o proyekto para magkaroon ng income, at walang movement para maging sustainable ang operations ng NPF, paniguradong masisimot kung anumang pondo ang meron sila,” Binay said in a statement.
(Because if they have no concrete plans or projects to generate income, and no move to make the NPF operations sustainable, then whatever funds they have left will surely run out eventually.)
The DOT, she said, can also study the financial and sales projections of the NPF in the next five to 10 years.
“Tingnan din ng DOT ang ibang activities that crossline the department’s programs o iyong mga corporate function that somehow duplicate what other agencies are already doing,” the senator also proposed.
(The DOT should also look into the other activities that crossline the department’s programs or the corporate functions that somehow duplicate what other agencies are already doing.)
Binay, however, took note that the NPF should be a “self-sustaining” government-owned and controlled corporation in the first place, noting that it sources income from the assets it owns and leases out, which include a 15-hectare property in Aseana City “which awaits to be developed.”
“It’s really up to them how they can minimize their property to be of highest and best use. The NPF needs to think out-of-the-box to generate a decent income, but the first step is not getting out of the box. The most important first step for the NPF is to ‘think,’” she said.
The 2022 COA annual audit report called on the NPF to draft a long-term financial plan with “detailed and realistic” targets to prevent the fund depletion.
“In the financial planning, revisit the annual operating expenses to introduce austerity measures and eliminate unnecessary functions or cost centers to accommodate more projects, activities and programs to attain the mandated functions of the NPF,” the state auditors said.
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