Pinayuhan ni Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman ang DPWH na maging maingat sa pagsusuri ng mga ipinapasok na proyekto sa panukalang national budget.
Ito’y matapos masilip ng kinatawan ang mga tinawag nitong “alien projects” o mga proyekto na isinisingit sa panukalang pondo na hindi dumaan sa pagsusuri ng district engineering office ng DPWH.
Ani Lagman, maaari umano itong makaapekto sa limitasyong itinakda sa iba’t ibang distrito sa bansa at baka ang priority project pa ang maalis.
“We hope that in the submission of projects for inclusion in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) the submission must be cleansed of “alien projects” which have not been validated and scrutinized by the respective district engineering offices since invariably, Mr. Chair there is a ceiling of the amount of infrastructure projects for a particular district and this ceiling is based on accepted standards. We should make sure that the ceiling is not breach by this alien projects and priority projects should not be bumped by this projects in the submission in the NEP.” ani Lagman.
Pagtiyak naman ni DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan na sa preparasyon ng budget ay siniguro nilang “fully coordinated” ang mga proyekto sa mga distrito sa mga miyembro ng Kongreso.
“And this has been emphasized to all our district and regional offices, that whenever they are going to submit their proposed programs and projects, under the regional budget proposals, we wanted…. to make sure that this are fully coordinated with the members Congress and of course we wanted (that) this projects would be aligned as well to the core program of the DPWH plus of course a leeway by which we can accommodate the local priorities of members of Congress, your honor,” sagot ni Bonoan.
Sakali naman ani Lagman na ma-validate na mayroon ngang alien projects at talagang kinakailangan ito, ay dapat pagkatapos na maisumite ang national expenditure program lamang ito maipasok.
“I hope that we can be very vigilant in safeguarding the submission to the NEP. In the event that these alien projects are subsequently validated and are necessary and relevant they should be included after the submission of the NEP to Congress.” dagdag ng mambabatas.
Sabi naman ni Bonoan mayroong proseso upang maipasok ang mga proyekto na nais bigyang prayoridad ng mambabatas,
“We can go through an errata in the preparation of the final version of the budget,” sabi ng kalihim. | ulat ni Kathleen Jean Forbes
