NR0803:LGUs giving P30M for GMA, Cha cha

Mula sa Tanggapan ni Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
News Release August 3, 2005
House of Representatives, South Wing Rm 602
931-6615 Ina Alleco R. Silverio, Chief of Staff
rep_crispin_beltran@yahoo.com.ph
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Pro-GMA LGUs to use their IRAs to project support for GMA and charter change; GMA’s 10 point agenda an utter failure

Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran today said that officials of local government units (LGUs) allied with Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are most likely going to use a section of their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) to project Mrs. Arroyo and the administration’s call for Charter for Change, not so much for genuine social reform projects that will provide the poor majority with steady livelihood and livable income. This was Beltran’s comment regarding Malacanang’s report that local executives have been declaring their support for the beleaguered president by pledging to allocate a total of P30 billion from their IRAs to fund the administration's reform programs.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the funds offered by local government units would be used to support the implementation of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan and the President's 10-point agenda.

“If they’re really supportive of the government’s call for reforms, then why is it only now that they’re setting aside funds for these so-called reforms? Pres. Arroyo’s 10-point economic agenda has been exposed as worthless and useless in providing the Filipino people much needed employment and social services. The government’s empty State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 25 already exposed this. More Filipinos get laid-off yearly, and unemployment under Arroyo continues to worsen as the number of Filipinos joining the labor force also grows. Oil prices and electricity rates are also hitting the roof. The only success GMA’s reforms have achieved is this: they have succeed in making the lives of millions of Filipinos worse,” he said.

Beltran said that these LGU officials supportive of GMA should not spend a single centavo of their IRAs to promote Charter Change or to help clean up GMA’s tattered image with the public. “Their constituencies are in need of more important services. They couldn’t care less about Cha cha unless it is to denounce it as a means for GMA to escape the public clamor for her removal from ouster and to divert attention for her illegitimate and corrupt presidency,” he said.

He also slammed Malacanang’s assertion that government deficits will decrease, and is heavily dependent on the on collections from the revenue measures passed by Congress such as the expanded value added tax.

“The government’s deficit will continue to balloon because of the deep-seated corruption within its agencies, particularly within Malacanang and the supposed income-generating and finance institutions run by the administration. Even as we speak, Malacanang is siphoning off billions of funds from social welfare funds such as those maintained by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and using them as counterpart funds for one-sided investment partnerships with foreign business and corporations. All in all, however, public deficit, especially the deficit in the budgets most ordinary Filipino households continues to grow exponentially because of government corruption and twisted economic priorities,” he said.#