Malacañang shrugs off Binay’s claims on slow Bohol rehab

Vice President Jejomar Binay knows well enough how the Aquino administration has worked to rehabilitate calamity-hit areas, Malacañang said Saturday.

Undersecretary Manuel “Manolo” Quezon III said this after the opposition’s presidential candidate accused the administration of not prioritizing the rehabilitation of Bohol and provinces devastated by typhoons.

“I think the Vice President himself would know from the time that he was in the Cabinet there has been significant progress, both in Bohol and in other areas that were affected by typhoons,” Quezon said over state-run Radyo ng Bayan.

Quezon acknowledged that there were instances when the construction of new houses and other facilities were delayed because the local government has yet to provide land, such as the case in Tacloban.

However, he also pointed out that Commission on Audit (COA) reports refer only “for a particular point in time and not necessarily related to the actual progress since then.”

“I believe that in the coming days we will be able to put out more details in terms of what has been achieved and we’ll be happy to start giving that to you starting next week,” the undersecretary said.

Binay, who was in Bohol for a two-day visit this week, pointed to a COA report showing slow implementation of rehabilitation projects in the area.

The report showed that only 12 out of 1,079 rehabilitation projects of the P2.413-billion Bohol Earthquake Assistance (BEA) fund were completed as of 2014. It also showed that only 138 out of 323 projects of the P1.778-billion Rehabilitation Assistance on Yolanda (RAY)–Batch 1 were completed in the same year.  IDL

READ: Binay hits slow rehab efforts in Bohol