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 "Your honors": Members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod discuss the whereabouts of millions of pesos channeled from national government agencies to the Kidapawan city government from 2008 to 2009. CARLO AGAMON KIDAPAWAN CITY – People here are beginning to question exactly how the city government actually spent an estimated PhP 77 million (USD 1.83 million) which different government agencies reportedly channeled to the city.
According to Kidapawan City Councilor Lauro Taynan Jr., the sum was reportedly transferred to the city government coffers between 2008 and 2009.
Speaking at a recent meeting of the Sangguniang Panglunsod (SP or City Council), councilor Tayman said the city’s chief executive and some departmental heads who would have had a direct hand in the planning and implementation of different nationally funded infrastructure projects, should be made to appear before the SP and say how the money was actually spent.
The SP has immediately started looking into the use of the funds by inviting City Planning and Development Coordinator (CPDC) Banjamin Catolico to speak in front of them. Nimfa Initan, SP secretary, said a letter of invitation was properly sent to the CPDC Office and all necessary questions were also provided as part of their protocol.
Councilor Taynan said the SP invited Catolico to help shed light on the implementation of different projects of the city government funded by the likes of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Energy (DOE), as well as other government agencies.
But Catolico did not appear when invited but instead sent a letter which both referred to a list of implemented projects of the city government. He also maintained that his office was never informed nor given a copy of the amount downloaded by the city government as alleged.
“My attendance to the SP session would be irrelevant and would never serve the purpose because I have nothing to shed light on any information sought by the members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod in aid of legislation,” Catolico wrote in a letter sent to the council in late April.
He further said that the list of projects he submitted to the SP a few weeks before, on April 7, 2011 should be sufficient to show what local projects had been funded by different government departments.
Councilor Taynan however is saying he is not convinced the CPDC office doesn’t have any knowledge of the PhP 77 million said to be downloaded from 2008 to 2009.
“I don’t know if Catolico being the CPDC coordinator of the city government is not really aware of this: If it’s so, then who will answer and take the liability on how these funds were used?” Taynan asked.
Taynan totaled up the PhP 77-million figure by adding up the following amounts: PhP 30 million financial assistance received from DA intended for farm-to-market roads; PhP 20 million from former House Speaker Prospero Nograles; PhP 14 million DOE as royalty share for O’ Ilaw projects; and four other sources including the financial assistance from Senator Edgardo Angara and Congresswoman Daryl Grace Abayon.
“We will be inviting again the CPDC coordinator in the next regular session including the other department heads and the City Administrator himself to sustain our inquiry,” Taynan told the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP).
He also said the intention of the SP is merely to know what particular projects and whether or not these projects were properly implemented.
“For transparency’s sake, the City Planning Coordinator along with City Administrator, City Accountant and the City Treasurer should have to submit their selves before the SP for an inquiry,” Taynan insisted.
Project implementation
All financial assistance sourced from the different national agencies and external sources were properly used for the implementation of government projects, Kidapawan City Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco said in an interview with PPTRP.
“This is our battle cry, as we pledged to the people during the height of election that we are going to source out funds to be used in introducing additional projects in the city particularly the concreting of the city streets and as well as the road rehabilitation in the rural areas,” he explained.
Gantuangco also said that these were projects he personally sourced out from different government line agencies including the DA and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
He was responding regarding the projects implemented based on the annotated report submitted and distributed by Catolico at the SP meeting as shown in the table below:
Summary of Implemented and On-Going Projects Funded by National Agencies
The NIA endowed PhP 50-million (as highlighted on the table) to the city government for an irrigation project. However, in the report which the CPDC submitted to the SP, it appears that the city government spent only PhP 43.6 million (USD 1.03 million) by allocating PhP 8.728 million (USD 207,809) per project area.
Where is the remaining PhP 6.4 million (USD 152,380) now? This is now the question by most of the people here.
It is also very visible in the table that the encircled PhP 30 million (USD 714,285) came from the DA, however, there were no projects listed by the CPDC.
“Where is the PhP 30 million now since this amount was downloaded to the city government in 2008?” Taynan asked at the meeting.
Project bidding and implementation
 This road along Villamarzo Street, according to Councilor Taynan, was made concrete using funds both from former Speaker Nograles and the 20 percent Economic Development Fund of the city. It is among the projects where the locals now are asking for proper audit. CARLO AGAMON “These funds were not actually downloaded to the city government. It is the DA and the NIA which conducted the bidding in Region X and XI. They were also the ones that have implemented the projects, not the city government,” Gantuangco told PPTRP.
Some of these national funds that were extended were placed in the city’s trust fund and not into the general fund according to the mayor.
“Most of these funds coming from the external sources were properly placed in the trust fund of the city government especially when it has a specific project and purpose to be funded like the purchase of medicines, farm inputs and road rehabilitation,” the mayor said.
Abner Francisco, chairperson of the Watchful Advocates for Transparent, Clean and Honest Governance in Kidapawan City (WATCH Kidapawan) questions the process of downloading the money and why these funds from the city government’s external sources did not appear in its annual budget for the calendar year 2008 to 2009.
“I understand that all funds both from the local income and external sources of the city government should be included in the budget preparation as it appears in the Statement of Receipts,” Francisco said.
WATCH Kidapawan launched its own monitoring of public sector activity in North Cotabato in the last quarter of 2010 after the citizens’ accountability group was set up with the help of PPTRP. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project
(The author is a journalist based in Kidapawan City.)
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What's wrong with these photos (apart from the blocked out bits)? 
