61% of Malabon disaster fund in 2012 used, says mayor

Malabon Mayor Antolin Oreta III on Monday denied that the city government did not efficiently spend its disaster relief funds, noting that over half of the allocation was spent on disaster preparedness projects last year.

His statement came after the Commission on Audit (COA) reported that the city government spent only 10 percent of its P54.3-million budget for disaster preparedness in 2012. On the other hand, the P25.7-million allocation for 2011 was left untouched.

“It’s not the case at all. When they came out with the report, they did not take into account what we did for 2012,” Oreta said.

He added: “In 2012, we spent P33 million, or roughly 61 percent of the P54.3-million disaster fund.”

“The COA also said that the disaster fund for 2011 was unused. I wasn’t mayor then and there was P25 million left from the disaster fund then. When we were in transition last year, maybe there were some unpaid obligations under the fund so the money was included,” he added.

Early last year, Oreta took over as acting mayor from his uncle, Mayor Canuto Senen Oreta, when the latter’s condition worsened because of cancer. Oreta officially assumed the post in September after his uncle died.

He noted that for 2012, the allocation was spent on rescue and training seminars, repair of river walls, collection of garbage in pumping stations, procurement of rescue equipment and security cameras and the construction of a command center.

“The purchases we did back then only came in this year. What slowed the process down was the internal processes we had to go through. But all those things, they were delivered and all accounted for,” Oreta said.