Iloilo's 5th district get biggest IRA devt-fund share
Iloilo's Fifth District comprised of eleven towns in the north got the biggest allocation for the province's Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) Development Fund (DF).
With P21.8 million worth of identified projects here, the municipality of Sara got the highest allocation of P2.1 million while P2 million each go to all other Fifth District towns except Barotac Viejo.
As per itemized planned expenditures sourced from the IRA-DF, all projects included for said funding were identified by respective Iloilo town executives. The 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) approved the proposed project listings with an over-all IRA DF for the Iloilo Provincial Government of P176,483,925.
Capitol sources told The News Today (TNT) that official transmittal to Governor Niel Tupas Sr. is expected to be done today. However news from the Capitol already disclosed the governor's objection on the major cuts made anew by the SP body on his original version of the IRA DF project listing.
The governor's hometown of Barotac Viejo got the least share of P1.7 million from the district's cut of the over-all IRA DF. Only three projects were also listed – the construction of a day care center in Barangay San Lucas set to receive P200,000, improvement of the San Antonio High School gym and General Luna National High School gym with P750,000 each.
In contrast were numerous project-listing in the towns of Ajuy, Carles, Concepcion, San Dionisio, Estancia, Balasan, San Rafael, Lemery, Sara and Batad.
Complete district allocations are as follow – total of P13,770 for the First District, P9,650,000 for the Second District, P17,410,000 for the Third District and P13,825,000 for the Fourth District.
Meantime, the holding of the Visayas Youth Congress in Iloilo got a P500,000 allocation in this year's IRA DF. Such alongside P1.2 million in financial assistance for the construction of houses with the Gawad Kalinga.
To recall, the SP in a majority vote sealed the approval of Committee Report No. 154 of the Committee on Appropriations containing the revised project listings of the IRA DF.
A total of 71 items got 'zero-budget' allocations from the SP-approved version.
The Committee in a report noted how the project details of listing submitted by the governor "were not development and livelihood projects" pursuant to provisions of the law.
It likewise highlighted how the second biggest item of P22 million as then opted by Tupas was for the Community Direct Action Project (CDAP). The CDAP is also referred to as the governor's "pork barrel" fund.
"They are pork barrel allocations because they are lump sum appropriations whose identification is entirely left to discretion of the Governor. They dwarf the proposed appropriation for agriculture which is only P7.5 million and the proposed appropriation for health which is P15.4 million," excerpts of the Committee report went.