DBM bidding out Sorsogon infra projects as budget deliberations were still on, Andaya claims

Billions pesos worth of infrastructure projects for Sorsogon have been bidded out by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) while Congress was still deliberating on the proposed 2018 national budget,  House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya claimed on Tuesday, citing DBM insiders.

On the other hand, mayors from Bicol Region supposedly told the congressman that government officials, who have served in the Cabinet, were also involved in “parking” millions of pesos in infrastructure projects under the 2019 budget.

“Not only mayors are spilling the beans on anomalous budget practices within the DBM. Now, insiders within the department are providing us with information related to questionable budget allocations in the Bicol Region,” Andaya said in a statement.

“These DBM insiders intimated to me that under the leadership of Secretary Diokno, billions of projects in Sorsogon for 2018 were being bid out as early as November 2017. The bidding took place even as Congress was still deliberating on the 2018 budget submitted by the DBM,” he said.

Diokno on Tuesday said the accusations against him by lawmakers might be a diversionary tactic, way to pressure him to release P45 billion of road user’s tax controlled by the Road Board.

Minority Leader Danilo Suarez is also accusing Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno of having a hand billions of pesos worth of transactions and contracts bagged by the supposedly favored contractor CT Leoncio Construction and Trading, in Sorsogon province. The provincial vice governor, Suarez noted, is an in-law of Diokno’s daughter.

Andaya claimed that Diokno was apparently rushing to download funds for Sorsogon and seemingly wanted to award P10 billion worth of projects to Sorsogon while Congress has yet to approve the 2019 budget.

This supposed scheme, Andaya claimed, not only happened this year but also in 2017 and would continue in next year’s budget.

“The DBM under Secretary Diokno has taken Congress for a ride in the past two years. Ngayon lang namin nalaman ang anomalyang ito. Bale wala pala ang mga committee hearings at plenary debates sa Kongreso. Sinisilip pa lang namin ang budget, sinisigurado na ng DBM ang bilyon-bilyong pondo na ibubuhos sa Sorsogon,” Andaya claimed.

“Kaya pala lagi kaming minamadali sa Kongreso na aprubahan agad ang budget. May naghihintay nang mga kontratista sa Sorsogon,” the lawmaker alleged further.

With more “whistleblowers” coming to him about allegedly anomalous transactions of the DBM, Andaya claimed that there is a need for Congress to further exercise its oversight function in the disbursement of government funds.

“Defintely, we will task the DBM for these questionable allocations. We will not stop in our investigation, whether Cabinet members appear or not in our hearings,” he said.

The investigation would focus on flood-mitigation projects, Andaya said, where the supposed “parked funds” were largely hidden. This could be the reason, he claimed, that DBM increased the allocation to these projects by almost P54 billion in 2018 while areas in the region continued to experience massive flooding.

Under the 2019 national budget, Andaya said that P114.4 billion out of the P544.5-billion budget allocated to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has been earmarked for flood-control projects, a 24-percent increase from the 2018 budget.

Andaya claimed that most of the flood-control projects were not part of the P488-billion budget that the DPWH originally proposed. The projects were included by the DBM, the lawmaker claimed.

“Ang idinagdag ba para sa  flagship Build, Build, Build projects? Hindi. Mukhang marami sa flood control, na hindi alam ng DPWH central office. Clueless sila,” he said.

“Malinaw na hindi solusyon sa baha o Build, Build, Build projects ng Pangulo ang pinagkakaabalahan ng DBM. Mas interesado yata sila sa mga pondong pagkakakitaan,” Andaya alleged.

The House Committee on Rules, chaired by Andaya, is staging an inquiry into supposed budget anomalies and anomalous allocations under the National Expenditure Program.

The inquiry has been scheduled on January 3, 2019 in Naga City. —Erwin Colcol/VDS, GMA News