A CONGRESSIONAL push for the abolition of underperforming government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions is gaining ground, with one local executive asking Malacañang to kick-start this austerity measure by closing down the debt-riddled Partido Development Administration (PDA) that incurred losses beyond P100 million over the past two years alone.

In a letter to President Aquino, a Bicolano governor called on the Palace to abolish and investigate the PDA, a “super” corporation operating in the Fourth District of Camarines Sur—better known as the Partido area—that has defaulted on its loans exceeding P1 billion “as a result of gross mismanagement.”

“May we enlist your support to our people’s call to abolish the PDA and to investigate this debt-ridden GOCC,” said Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. in his recent letter to Mr. Aquino.

“There is an urgent need to scrutinize its past and present debt transactions, which to our mind are absolutely unnecessary and unexplainable given the [small] size of the area and its limited constituency.”

The national government has been forced to absorb such bad loans of the PDA, the payables of which totaled P585.5 million in 2009, representing the first four loan amortizations and guarantee fees because of the PDA’s inability to pay them, said Villafuerte in citing Commission on Audit (COA) findings.

“As per the COA’s 2009 Annual Audit Report, the PDA has been operating at a loss for the years 2009 [P33,355,328.32] and 2008 [P66,247,741.64],” he said in the letter. “Its foreign loans and national debt, likewise, amounts to more than P1 billion and which is being paid for and assumed by the national government because the PDA is unable to service its obligations.” (Zaff Solmerin)