TACLOBAN CITY-Two projects funded by the controversial and outlawed Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) in Leyte are “visible” and benefit the public. Thus said regional director Pedro Noval Jr. of the Department of the Interior and Local Government who identified the DAP-funded projects as the dietary building of the Leyte Provincial Hospital (LPH) based in Palo town and the truck scale/weighbridge in Ormoc City, both in Leyte.
The dietary building of the LPH was constructed at a cost of P7 million while the truck scale/weighbridge, a component of the ecowaste center of Ormoc city government, was worth P3 million. “Definitely, these projects funded by the DAP are being enjoyed by our people. These are visible,” Noval said. It was learned from Noval that the both the provincial government and the city government of Ormoc received the respective amount after being awarded of the Seal of Good Housekeeping, a program of the DILG initiated during the time of former Secretary Jesse Robredo. Noval said that the prizes given to the local government units were sourced from the DAP, which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and widely perceived as President Aquino’s own pork barrel by his critics.
Rodrigo Jusay, administrative officer of the LPH, said that he was not aware that the construction of the dietary building of their hospital was sourced from the DAP.
“We don’t have any idea what was the source of the funding for the construction of the building. But whatever its source, the building is being used by (us),” Jusay said.
But Jusay admitted that they were only able to use the building, occupying around 600 square meters, last February, 2014.
He said that the building was destroyed during the onslaught of Supertyphoon Yolanda. It was constructed on July and was finished third week of October. Yolanda hit Leyte on November 8, 2013. The building, which also serves as seminar area, was repaired by the contingents from the South Korean government. For his part, Mayor Edward Codilla of Ormoc said that the scale/weighbridge is also beneficial to them.
“Considering the benefits and advantages of having a weighbridge, the city government is very much positive that it will yield results and contribute much in our solid waste management undertaking and even in the generation of locally sourced revenues,” wrote Mayor Edward Codilla to Noval last July 17, 2014. The sanitary landfill of Ormoc, located at Barangay Green Valley, was inaugurated December of 2012. The Seal of Good Housekeeping is awarded to local government units which complies the full disclosure policy and has no adverse report from the Commission on Audit.
