'Time to heal'. Inquirer Newsletter. November 9, 2020

No images? Click here   TO THE SHELTERS, AGAIN - Only a week after returning home from evacuation centers, where they fled when typhoon "Rolly" struck their village. Residents of an area in Barangay Padang in Legazpi City, Albay Province, is in the path of lahar avalanches from Mayon Volcano wait for their turn to ride in vehicles that will take them back to the shelters as typhoon "Ulysses" approaches Bicol region on Wednesday MARK ALVIC ESPLANA     Regions House approves creation of body to oversee Boracay   Two House panels on Tuesday approved the creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority (Bida) to firm up gains from the rehabilitation and sustainable development of the resort island in Malay town, Aklan province. Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1359440/house-approves-creation-of-body-to-oversee-boracay     Business Steeper GDP decline seen this year After a deeper-than-expec­ted economic contraction in the third quarter, economists downgraded their full-year 2020 outlook on the Philippines to price in a more severe downturn arising from the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent job losses and business disruptions amid lockdowns. —STORY BY Doris Dumlao - Abadilla Read more:  https://business.inquirer.net/311566/steeper-gdp-decline-seen-this-year   News   Court clerk shoots Manila judge dead then commits suicide   A presiding judge of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) was shot and killed by the clerk of court, who later committed suicide, inside her chamber at Manila City Hall on Wednesday, police said. —STORY BY Jodee Agnocillo Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1359489/court-clerk-shoots-manila-judge-dead-then-commits-suicide#ixzz6dX6uDByJ   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Get here     Banner story   Lacson flags DPWH ‘white elephants’, ‘skeletons’   By Melvin Gascon MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday said up to P135 billion had been allocated from the public works department’s budget for nearly 6,000 projects that were unfinished despite multiple million-peso funding in recent years, wasting the people’s money. Lacson, who spoke during Senate deliberations on the P4.5-trillion 2021 national budget, also said he found disparities between “extraordinarily huge amounts” and relatively small allocations for infrastructure projects in some parts of the country. He said his staff found 5,913 “rehashed” projects worth P135 billion, including “skeletons” of multipurpose buildings (MPBs) and those that were abandoned for various reasons and had turned into “white elephants.” “There could not be a better illustration of how acts of corruption are committed than by the misuse and abuse of public funds — not anymore by the hundreds of thousands but by the millions of pesos, wasted during implementation of the national budget or the General Appropriations Act (GAA),” he said. “It would be like tolerating fraud if we continue allotting funds even after we have already seen how many of the local projects remained to be skeletons even after we have appropriated a few million pesos,” he said. Sen. Sonny Angara, the main sponsor of the budget as chair of the finance committee, said the issues raised by Lacson may be explored when they scrutinize the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with Public Works Secretary Mark Villar. Engineering districts Lacson proposed that the total P68 billion allocated for the construction of MPBs in the 2021 budget be spent instead for evacuation centers or quarantine facilities. Angara said proposals for the fund realignment may be discussed during the period of amendments.Lacson also raised the issue of disparities in the funding of DPWH projects, comparing a P15.351-billion allocation for “one urban [engineering] district in Davao” against another that received only P42 million. “What’s in those districts that could merit, not to mention, absorptive capacity? Because I cannot see how that engineering district could implement P15.351 billion of infrastructure projects [in one year],” the senator said, without giving details of the project. After scouring the DPWH but without citing specifics, he said he found a district in Benguet province set to get P7.9 billion. He also found one district in Albay province that was allotted P7.5 billion, while another in Abra province was to be given P3.75 billion. Referring to the four districts, he said: “That’s the honor roll, Mr. President—horror roll.” He was addressing Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who was surprised by Lacson’s findings. “I never came across something like that in the past because before, allocations were usually meant to benefit not only a single district, but an entire province,” he said. Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1359479/ping-flags-dpwh-white-elephants-skeletons#ixzz6dX5oWRFC     Editorial Clear and Present Danger Vincent Adia had been recuperating from multiple gunshots to his face at the Rizal Provincial Hospital in Angono, Rizal, on Nov. 5 when a lone unidentified gunman barged into the emergency room before noon, and shot him again at close range in front of horrified doctors and nurses. This time, the assassin made sure the 27-year-old branded a drug pusher would not survive. Adia reportedly had feared for his life days before he was first shot Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/135225/clear-and-present-danger-2       Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe