Senate cuts Apeco budget to only P40M

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Senate has drastically cut to only P40 million the 2015 budget earmarked by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the Aurora Pacific Economic and Freeport Zone (Apeco) in Aurora province.

The 84-percent reduction of the original P251-million proposed budget for Apeco was endorsed by the Senate committee on finance during the budget plenary on Nov. 22.

Senators approved the P2.606-trillion national budget last week. On Wednesday, the Senate panel will meet with its counterpart from the House of Representatives for the bicameral conference committee to reconcile their versions of the budget.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, one of the authors of laws that created the economic zone in his home province, had earlier asked Sen. Francis Escudero and Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, committee chair and vice chair, respectively, “for reconsideration of the budget cut to restore the budget to the level approved by the DBM.”

The P40 million, Angara had said, would pay only for salaries and could not fund the construction of buildings, roads, warehouses and other support infrastructure within the 12,923-hectare Apeco in Casiguran town in northern Aurora.

This year, Apeco operated on P48.5 million.

Transcripts of the Oct. 21 and Oct. 30 budget hearings showed that Apeco managed to get P40 million despite appeals by Task Force Anti-Apeco (TFAA) for a zero budget due to the absence of feasibility studies, adverse findings by the Commission on Audit, destroyed projects in past typhoons, threats of displacements among farmers and indigenous communities, and lack of social acceptability.

Fr. Javy Alpasa, SJ, of Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan had told the Senate committee that the P486-million Apeco International Airport turned out to be the “world’s most expensive rice dryer,” noting that farmers were using the runway to dry their palay because no plane had used the facility since last year.

Lawyer Gerardo Erquiza Jr., president and chief executive officer of Apeco, defended the P251-million original budget and told the committee that the economic zone needed the government’s support.

Osmeña, however, remained unconvinced because Apeco did not make any money in the last seven years even though the government poured in P2 billion for its development. Erquiza contested the amount.

Lawyer Christian Monsod, counsel of TFAA, said Apeco should get only “caretaker funds” until the board of the National Economic and Development Authority approves the new developmental plan of Apeco and until the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the courts resolves the constitutionality of laws creating the zone.

Monsod said the DOJ or the courts should also look into the possible encroachment into 11,000 ha of ancestral domain.

In the Oct. 30 budget hearing, Dumagat leaders spoke of the bad and good effects of Apeco to their communities. Reports from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon, and TJ Burgonio in Manila