ILOILO City – Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor Sr. dismissed the criticism that he was trying to gain political mileage in distributing P16 million worth of financial assistance to local government units.
Capitol has released checks worth P16,001,399.10 to fund projects identified by various barangays in the province.
The 3rd District – represented in Congress by Defensor’s son, Arthur Jr. – received the lion’s share of the aid with P5,717,049.10.
The 1st District received P5,140,000; 2nd District, P3,182,950; 5th District, P1,461,400; and the 4th District, P500,000.
The P16 million came from the provincial government’s 20-percent Internal Revenue Allotment Development Fund and Subsidy to Other Local Government Units allocation.
The projects for which the amount was intended include concreting/upgrading of a farm-to-market road, construction of a water system, construction of a day care center, construction of a barangay streetlight, construction of a drainage canal, improvement of a barangay plaza, construction/improvement of a multipurpose hall, among others.
Defensor himself turned over the checks to the recipient local governments at the capitol boardroom on July 5.
Politics had nothing to do with the distribution of financial aid for barangays, the governor said.
The amounts the recipients got were based on the projects they needed and asked for, Defensor stressed.
“Kon ihatag mo ang ginapangayo sang tawo nga tubig, pamolitika bala ina?” Defensor asked.
The 4th District – represented in Congress by Dr. Ferjenel Biron – had a notably low allocation.
Biron has expressed intent to run for governor in the 2019 mid-term election and may clash with House of Representatives colleague Arthur Jr. who considers seeking the governorship as “one option.”
Defensor has expressed confidence that the ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), will choose his son as candidate for the mid-term election.
“After all, he is the only PDP-Laban member in the province to have voiced his interest in running for governor,” Defensor has said.
The governor also said he learned that critics took issue with Supplemental Budget No. 2 that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved on June 26.
Among the items that the P559,793,925.62 additional budget covered was the increase in the daily salary of job hire workers to P477.72 from P430.
Most of the supplemental budget was allocated for the upgrade of district hospitals, Defensor said.
Raising the daily pay of job hires was purely aimed at helping the workers financially, stressed the governor.
The additional budget will also fund the newly created office for the Internal Audit Unit to be headed by Lyd Tupas and Sandra Bionat, and the upgrade of the capitol’s air-conditioning system worth P20 million.
It also covered the communication system (P2.9 million), transportation (P1.8 million) and police barracks completion (P1.5 million) funding request from the Iloilo Police Provincial Office./PN
It is a politicking if you can see and based in the actual scenario. Politician think that people can’t understand their motives. If you based in IRA all should have a little variance in amount not in the way you look at it the disparity of the amount is huge compared to other district. Dont make us moron Gov . . .