Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is having the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) investigate the alleged syndicate behind the illegal realignment of billions of funds in the proposed 2023 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
According to Cayetano, as the former Speaker of the House, he came to the information that there is a group that controls the allocation of projects in different congressional districts.
But what is alarming is the possibility that the manipulation of funds is happening with DPWH funds even before it is submitted to Congress.
Cayetano further explained that the “parking” of funds used to be done at the bicameral level and usually only for a small amount. Still, now billions of pesos are being moved, and it has become even more widespread.
Cayetano dubbed the said work the “expanded fund parking scheme,” where the budget of the congressional districts will be deliberately reduced, and the return of such funds will be arranged in exchange for giving the project to selected contractors.
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Cayetano wants probe on ‘fund parking scheme’ in DPWH
“Ang sumbong sa akin ay binabawasan daw ang budget ng mga distrito, tapos kakausapin nila ang congressman doon na pwede nilang ibalik ang pondo pero sila ang mamimili ng project at contractor nila ang gagawa nito. Hulidap ang tawag dito,” the senator said.
(The report to me said that the budget of the districts is being reduced, then they will talk to the congressman there that they can return the funds, but they will buy the project and their contractor will do it. It is called Hulidap.)
He added that the funding of some districts in the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP) was reduced for ‘unsustainable reasons’, where the reduction ranged from 21.41 percent to 93.12 percent.
He also called Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, head of the DBCC, to investigate the said matter and find out the truth in the allegation that there is a syndicate in the DPWH that illegally parked the funds.
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