SENATE BILL GIVES P10 B TO TYPHOON VICTIMS AND P 23 M FROM PDAF

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago filed two legislative measures Monday to fund relief operations, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of areas devastated by Typhoon Ondoy.

            One of them is Senate Bill No. 3461 appropriating P 10 B to fund disaster management efforts in the wake of the storm that brought record breaking rainfall. Dubbed as the Ondoy Fund, P 8 B of the appropriation will come from the proceeds from the Road Users Tax while the remaining P 2 B will be sourced from local government units.

            “The road tax should have been used for road maintenance and drainage systems in the first place.  What could have been used as preventive measures will now be used as a cure,” Santiago said.

            The senator laid out guidelines in her bill for the allocation of the Ondoy Fund, stating that the priority shall be given to the following:

1)      the construction and repair of various infrastructures such as roads and bridges, and other projects such as drainage works and resettlement centers; and

2)      funding for aid, relief, rehabilitation, and livelihood of the typhoon victims.

Santiago also filed Senate Resolution No. 1378 urging fellow senators to donate at least P 1 million from their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to aid the victims of Ondoy.

“The most kickback-prone projects from pork barrels are those involving public works. In this case, we will make sure that there will be full public disclosure of the disbursement of the funds donated for the benefit of the victims of the storm Ondoy,” she said.

She pointed out a December 2004 precedent where 19 senators allocated P 7,050,000 from their PDAF to finance relief operations and reconstruction programs in Aurora and Quezon provinces devastated by a series of storms to hit the country that year.

“Although no senator followed up his or her pledge to my project called ‘one senator, one PGH (Philippine General Hospital) machine’ in 2005, I am confident that my colleagues will heed my call this time with the degree of destruction Ondoy left,” Santiago said.

The senator also appealed to the members of the House of Representatives for the immediate passage of the Disaster Risk Reduction Bill directed at modernizing the equipment of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). It was approved in the Senate on 2 September 2009.

“The devastation wrought by Ondoy underscores the need to modernize the country’s weather forecasting system. PAGASA needs to upgrade its equipment so that we would get early and efficient weather advisories,” Santiago said.

Press Release

16 June 2007

MIRIAM DARES NEW SOLONS TO SPEND PORK WITHOUT KICKBACKS

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago dared newly-elected senators to prove their integrity by donating their annual pork barrel funds to “kickback-free” projects for the Philippine General Hospital, the country’s biggest charity hospital, and to the University of the Philippines, the country’s premier state university.

“It is well-known in the pork barrel trade that there are no kickbacks for such projects as state-of-the-art machines for public hospitals, or new buildings for state universities. This project should be the litmus test for new senators claiming to be honest,” Santiago said.

Santiago was honored guest at a special program June 15 during the inauguration of new PGH medical facilities, headed by UP President Emerlinda Roman, PGH Director Carmelo Alfiler, and PGH cardiologist, now DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral.

Starting 2005, Santiago launched her personal campaign for “one senator, one machine” for PGH, leading the way by donating at that time P16 million for new equipment for the adult gastroenterology and cardiology sections.

The senator followed this up with her recent donation of another P6 million for the renovation of three rooms, called the control room, medical call room, and medical auxiliary room. In addition, Santiago’s pork barrel provided medical gas facilities to ensure that oxygen and lifesaving gases will be available to PGH patients.

Later this year, Santiago has already committed another P12 million to purchase an endoscopic ultrasound equipment for the new gastroenterology center at UP-PGH, the first of its kind in the Philippines to make diagnostic and treatment procedures available to patients who cannot afford similar facilities in private hospitals.

Santiago said that in 2005, she passed around the Senate a “pledge sheet” containing a list of machines urgently needed by PGH, with the intention that every senator should indicate opposite the machine of his choice the amount he was willing to donate from his pork barrel.

“Sadly, my project called ‘one senator, one PGH machine’ raised a lot of curiosity and interest among the senators, but apparently no senator followed up on his pledge,” Santiago lamented.

Santiago said that it is virtually useless for a senator to make public mere refusal of his pork barrel funds, because those funds will simply go to another agency where they could be subjected to corruption.

“Mere renunciation of pork barrel does not constitute a public service. It needs follow-up to make sure that the money refused goes to worthwhile social services. Instead of seeking publicity for giving up pork barrel, senators should allocate their pork barrel to ‘clean’ projects where it is impossible to get a kickback, such as the importation of expensive medical machines to be made available free to the poor,” Santiago said.

Santiago made banner headline news in 1996, when a leading newspaper exposed additional pork barrel that senators allocated for themselves, called the Congressional Initiative Allocation, by refusing it on the ground that it had no constitutional basis.

“Pork barrel has a constitutional basis, so it is legal. But in most cases, it is reduced by kickbacks shared among the legislator, local government official, and contractor. The most kickback-prone projects are those involving public works,” Santiago said.

UP President Roman lauded Santiago’s consistent support over the years for UP-PGH, particularly her donation of annual pork barrel to complete the new National Institute of Physics building in the UP Diliman campus, where Santiago graduated.

“A senator or representative can sponsor a building by donating pork barrel funds in annual increments until the building is finished. I hope Sen. Santiago’s example will be followed by other senators,” Roman said.

DSWD Secretary Cabral, known to be a close friend of Santiago, and a former practitioner at PGH, pointed out that PGH is the country’s biggest charity hospital, catering to more than 600,000 patients a year, 90 percent of whom are indigents.

“Senators who genuinely care for the poor can help them directly by funding the importation of the latest medical machines. This process does not allow kickbacks, so any senator who donates medical equipment is automatically clean. That should be the attraction for the new senators,” she said.

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Announcement

MIRIAM CELEBRATES 62nd BIRTHDAY
AT PGH

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago will be the guest of honor during the Philippine General Hospital’s Inauguration of newly renovated facilities on 15 June 2007, 9:00 a.m., at the PGH Atrium. The Inauguration coincides with her 62nd birthday.

The renovation of the PGH facilities was made possible through Senator Santiago’s Priority Development Assitance Fund.

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