Representative Maria Carmen Zamora (congress.gov.ph photo)
TAGUM CITY, Philippines – Local officials in a typhoon-devastated town in Compostela Valley said the completion of several infrastructure projects has been affected by the suspension of the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel, saying the burden of finishing pork barrel-funded projects is now on their shoulders.
Mayor Cesar Colina of the upland town of Maragusan said his municipality would have to look for funds to finish several infrastructure projects funded by the pork barrel of 1st district Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora.
“That’s a problem for us LGUs (local government units) on where to look for funding to complete these PDAF-financed projects,” Colina told reporters during a recent visit there.
Among the projects funded by Zamora’s PDAF that is in danger of being unfinished, is a P350,000-concrete stage for the elementary school in Langgawisan, a mountain community of about 5,000 residents belonging to the Mansaka tribe, some 25 kilometers from the town proper, according to Colina.
“There are also (allotments) for the repair of typhoon-damaged classrooms,” the mayor said.
Zamora, daughter of former congressman and now Vice Gov. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora, said her pork barrel allocation also funded the building of a classroom from the Langgawisan High School worth P450,000.
During a recent visit to Langgawisan, Zamora saw for herself the sorry state of the planned stage– a skeleton of what looked like a duplex-type house standing on a grassy area on the foot of a hill, dozens of meters away from the school grounds.
Now that the Supreme Court has suspended the release of pork barrel funds to Congress, Colina said his office would try to look for other fund sources to complete the projects.
“We would like to really finish these projects,” said the mayor. “We have to look for fund sources (other than Zamora’s PDAF).”
Zamora appealed to local government units to help her finish “what we’ve started.”
“Actually, we have so many projects for areas like in Langgawisan, but with the recent developments (related to the pork barrel), these were put on hold,” she said.
Her district comprises the towns of Maragusan, New Bataan, Compostela, Montevista and Monkayo—areas hardest hit by Typhoon Pablo in 2012.
“I have funded a total of P120 million worth of hard projects in my three terms to these municipalities and 80 percent of these infrastructures were either destroyed or damaged by the storm, so I’m appealing to national agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways to help,” said Zamora.
In Davao del Norte, 2nd district Rep. Antonio Lagdameo Jr. said projects for the barangays (villages) have also been affected by the recent controversy.
“Medyo naapektuhan ‘yung mga projects natin sa mga barangay, mostly mga small projects amounting from P150,000 to P300,000 like covered courts, barangay halls, but we’re trying to look for other funding sources,” Lagdameo told reporters in a previous interview.
Lagdameo said a large chunk of his PDAF also went to “social services” like hospitalization allocation for his indigent constituents in the cities of Samal and Panabo and in the municipalities of Braulio Dujali, Carmen and Sto. Tomas, as well as assistance coursed through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The Davao del Norte lawmaker said his “hospitalization allocation” ranged from P200,000 to P500,000 funneled to the Davao Regional Hospital (DRH) in Tagum.