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CITING a
“clamor” from local governments, Budget Secretary
Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Wednesday that the government
will revive the controversial Kalayaan Barangay program
in the proposed 2008 budget that it will submit to
Congress on August 22.
Andaya
told reporters after guesting in “Meet the Press” at the
National Press Club that the government will also study
the possible revival of the P4-billion Kilos Asenso
program in the proposed 2008 budget, for the same
reason.
“We will
revive it,” he said, referring to the P1-billion program
which lawmakers had rejected in the proposed 2006 budget
out of fear that it would be used for the administration
campaign.
Andaya
said lawmakers who attended the Legislative-Executive
Development Advisory Council (Ledac) wanted more funds
to be channeled to Mindanao, and the Kalayaan Barangay
program was one way of doing this.
The
Kalayaan Barangay program seeks to improve the delivery
of social services in about 200 remote barangays
nationwide to improve the lives of rural folk and make
them less vulnerable to joining the insurgency.
On the
Kilos Asenso program, Andaya said: “We’re still studying
it. There’s a clamor from the LGUs to revive it. That’s
a counterparting scheme. If we do allow it, we will only
provide a menu on where it could be used. It has to be
infrastructure projects.”
The
budget chief also said that at present, there is no need
to make any special appropriations to fund the military
offensive in Mindanao, even if it would require P1
billion per month, because this cost would not only be
borne by the national government but would be shared by
concerned agencies.
He also
said that there is now “better planning” and
coordination between the Department of Budget and
Management and the Armed Forces in terms of procurement
and personnel requirements of the latter.
“We were
able to come to an agreement that planning should be
strengthened between our departments. . . . We explained
to them that they do not have to get a special
(allocation) from us to add it to their budget. Those
things, when we have an approved [plan] and we know the
procurement plan, that’s automatically given to you,”
Andaya said. |
