Manila, Philippines - There will be no more waste of funds
provided by the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) as “transparency, accountability, and prudent spending” have enabled the
government to maximize its use of resources for the people, President Aquino
said yesterday.
“Gone are the days when the funds you funnel to our country
will end up like water leaking through a broken pail,” Aquino told a gathering
of the ADB Board of Governors, whose 45th annual meeting ends today at the
Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
“We are prepared to follow through on our commitments, and
you are by all means welcome to see if we’re living up to our word,” he said.
“Transparency, accountability, and prudent spending also create fiscal space
for social and infrastructure investments. This discipline has allowed us to
channel resources to investments in our people.”
“Change has set in the Philippines, and we are open for
business. It began with a people granting us the trust and opportunity to
re-establish a government that truly puts them front and center,” Aquino
pointed out.
Of the $761.9 million provided by the ADB, $643.8 million
will go to social protection and support projects, agrarian reform, rural
infrastructure enhancement, credit for better health care, and irrigation in
Mindanao.
“It can only end with a people reaping the benefits of a
system where growth is both inclusive and sustained, where progress is felt by
all, and where every citizen lives the life of dignity that he truly deserves,”
he said.
“We are getting to where we want to be faster because of
your assistance. This meeting of your Board of Governors, in fact, reaffirms
the newfound confidence that the international community has exhibited towards
my nation,” Aquino told ADB officials.
“For this, you have the gratitude of our people, and a
commitment from my administration. You will continue to see results; you will
continue to see a Philippines that is finally living up to its potential,” he
promised.
GMA hit
Aquino also took a swipe at the former Arroyo
administration, which he accused of corrupting institutions.
“None of us could have imagined how deeply eroded the
foundations of government had become, in the nine and a half years of my
predecessor,” he said, referring to detained former president and now Pampanga
Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Endemic corruption had sapped the system of its vitality;
public funds ceased to be used for the public good, and found themselves in
private hands, whom we are now holding accountable,” he said.
“The message, for nine and a half years, was: Nice guys
finish last. To finish first, you had to lack conscience, exhibit a certain
degree of shamelessness, and be an expert at giving handshakes with one hand,
while picking pockets with the other,” he added.
“Politics permeated poverty-alleviation programs: slots on
the conditional cashtransfer program were handed out in exchange for votes,” he
said.
“With too few jobs being generated, our people were trapped
in a downward spiral: no education, no work, no chance to improve their lot in
life,” he said.
Aquino added that one of his first moves when he took over
as president was to institutionalize a zero-based budget approach in which
expenditures are rationalized and not simply carried over to the next year.
He said his administration also went after tax evaders
aggressively and passed a law that sets a high standard for governance, making
government-owned and controlled corporations more efficient and rational.
“And we showed our resolve that no public official,
regardless of his or her position, will be beyond the reach of justice and
accountability,” he said.
“All of these efforts have allowed us to reclaim our
national honor; they have boosted confidence in the country, restored our
citizenry’s morale, and are reaping dividends on the economic front,” he added.
Aquino said his reforms have led to six positive ratings in
less than two years of his administration, as against the single upgrade and
six downgrades in the nine years of the previous administration.
“We have experienced all-time highs in our stock market 27
times in our 22 months in office,” he added.
He also emphasized that government’s social welfare programs
are now insulated from politics.
“Now we are confident that the more than three million
households in our conditional cash transfer program are actually the neediest
families, and not merely the best-connected; now we know that we are actually
sponsoring the 5.2 million poorest families through our PhilHealth program,” he
said.
Protest
Meanwhile, several farmers rallied outside the PICC to
protest ADB’s water and irrigation projects, which they claimed have “pushed
farmers to deeper poverty and indebtedness.”
“Instead of improving the lives of our poor farmers, ADB’s
water and irrigation projects have destroyed our livelihood and violated
people’s basic and fundamental rights to water and food,” said Nestor Diego,
secretary-general of the Pambansang Kaisahan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (PKMP).
“These farmers who already have limited access to farm
subsidies and are saddled by rising costs of farm inputs and low farm gate
prices, have to pay exorbitant water fees under ADB’s model of cost-recovery
schemes for irrigation delivery, while government is obliged by the bank to
withdraw its subsidies to poor farmers,” said Arze Glipo, lead convenor of Task
Force Food Sovereignty.
TFFS is a Philippines-based network of farmers and food
security advocates.
The group cited as example the $60-million Southern
Philippines Irrigation Sector Project loan from ADB which
started in 2000 and was completed only in December 2009.
The project, which targeted 10,000 farm households, involved
the development of irrigation and drainage facilities for 18,000 hectares of
farmlands in selected provinces in Visayas and Mindanao.
On its website, ADB said that “the project has been
physically completed on June 30, 2010 with some remaining minor works to be
undertaken by the government after the said date.”
But TFFS said that a field investigation in August 2010
revealed that one of the “completed” projects, specifically the Gibong National
Irrigation System (NIS) in Prosperidad and San Francisco towns of Agusan del
Sur, was not operating.
“When we visited Gibong, what we saw was not ‘some remaining
minor works to be undertaken.’ We found out that the project is far from being
complete,” Diego said.
TFFS said ADB should immediately halt its loan programs and
projects that are leading to the privatization of water resources and
management.
“The strategy of private sector participation,
public-private partnership and cost-recovery in water and irrigation should be
thoroughly reviewed in the light of the massive failures of these policies to
bring sufficient water to the poor population as well as to the increased
burden imposed by such strategies on already indebted poor farmers,” Glipo
said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police assured the safety
of ADB delegates even after the conference.
“After the closure of the ADB meeting, we expect some of the
delegates to stay for their personal or official trips. We assure the public
and the delegates that security arrangements under Task Force ADB shall remain
for the duration of their stay in the country,” PNP spokesman Senior
Superintendent Generos Cerbo Jr. said.
Cerbo said around 5,000 visitors from some 70 countries have
arrived since the start of the ADB meeting on May 2.
More than 3,000 policemen have been deployed as part of
security for the ADB meeting. With Rhodina Villanueva, Cecille Suerte Felipe
[PHOTO -
President Benigno Aquino III.