90% of Malabon disaster funds unused

The Malabon City government had more than P80 million in disaster relief funds from 2011 to 2012 but it used just around seven percent of the amount, thus depriving residents of the flood-prone city of much-needed assistance.

This was the finding of the Commission on Audit (COA) which noted that the city government led by Mayor Antolin A. Oreta III used only 10.2 percent or P5.525 million of its P54.301-million appropriation for disaster relief in 2012 and zero percent of its P25.734-million allocation in 2011.

“Funds were not optimally utilized for reducing disaster risk and enhancing disaster preparedness and response capabilities of the city to achieve desirable results,” it said in its 2012 report.

Among the projects that were affected were the purchase of radio equipment for the command center, rescue and emergency operations equipment, rescue vehicles, flood warning and geographical information systems, construction of pump stations on top of floodgates and drainage, water waste collection equipment, meals for victims, and the repair of the collapsed river wall and pump station.

“[These] projects were not fully implemented in 2012, thus depriving city constituents of earlier benefiting from said projects had these been implemented before the onset of the typhoon/flooding season,” the COA said.

It added that the Malabon Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) Office provided only the itemized spending but it did not state the projects or activities for which the funds were used. The COA said it had asked the Malabon government twice to submit its project list, but city officials claimed that this had yet to be approved due to revisions.

According to COA, this was also the reason why the city failed to use the disaster relief funds for 2011 worth P25.734 million.

Malabon officials also did not report these idle funds to the city auditor nor posted it on its website or at city hall as mandated under COA rules.

“The city’s constituents were deprived of the opportunity to be informed about their city officials’ DRRM activities as well as their actions or responses to calamities that occurred during the year. [This] has not contributed to fostering transparency and accountability in the governance of the city,” the COA said.

It suggested that the city beef up its DRRM Office, file monthly and annual reports on the utilization of its disaster relief funds  and make public these reports.

The Inquirer tried to contact Oreta and the head of the city public information office for comment, but text messages and calls made to their cell phones went unanswered.