Money. Let's talk about money. Let's talk about dollars and pesos. You can't fight a war without money. What will you buy weapons with? A milk cow?
An official of the United States Embassy in the Philippines said on Thursday that about USD250 million worth of assistance is regularly given to the country in areas of security, military equipment, and exchange programs.
John C. Law, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in the Philippines, said aside from the security and military assistance, which are already here, “the US government is also providing the Philippines some USD60 to USD70 million a year mainly for the conduct of exchange programs".
Speaking in a forum attended by the faculty and students of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in this city, Law said that “sometimes the figure would increase depending on the need of the Philippine government”.
Last year, the US government gave USD110 million to the country for the procurement of US military equipment, the biggest financial assistance that the US government has provided to an Indo-Pacific region country.
“For development-type programs, financial assistance was mostly associated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), such as the aquatic resources research that amounts to USD100 million a year, plus those activities which are in line with disaster relief and humanitarian assistance,” Law said.
The US official said that after the infamous Marawi City siege, the USAID provided USD59 million to help the displaced families with their basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter.
“Another financial assistance that is given yearly is intended for law enforcement activities of the Philippine National Police (PNP), which are in line in fighting illegal drugs, smuggling, and strengthening the judicial sector,” Law said.
“For these activities, the US government is giving (more or less) USD250 million a year,” he added.
$250 million is quite a lot of money. Does this include the millions spent via Operation Pacific Eagle?
This quarter, the DoD released its budget request for FY 2020, which included approximately $82.3 million to support OPE-P. This was a decrease from the $108.2 million requested for FY 2019 and the $99.4 million obligated for OPE-P in FY 2018.
Even if none of that money is going directly to the Philippine government it is still money being spent in the Philippines. Or at least to cover operations in the Philippines. It is not chump change. The US taxpayer is footing the bill to help defeat terrorism in the Philippines.
Freedom isn't free.
What about all that USAID money? Well of course USAID is CIA and if you talk to certain columnists and bloggers they will rip to shreds Rappler, CMFR, PCIJ, and Vera Files for receiving USAID money but they are silent about the money USAID spreads liberally in the Philippines to many NGOs. Does all that money get spent properly? Of course not.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) for spending in 2018 only P10,000 out of the P36.92 million donation for victims of the five-month long siege of Marawi City in 2017.
State auditors said this amount was used to assist the family of one dead victim.
"Clearly, the donations were not utilized to provide for the much needed support of the Marawi siege victims," the COA said in its 2018 audit report.
The donation of the Embassy of India made up more than half of the Marawi donations, amounting to P25.57 million, followed by the Embassy of Thailand at P5 million.
Under the National Disaster Coordinating Council Memorandum Order No. 13, the OCD may grant disaster victims a P10,000 financial assistance if a family member died and P5,000 for the injured.
The COA, however, said victims may find it to difficult to avail of these benefits due to the number of documents they need to produce at their respective regional disaster coordinating councils.
For instance, the family of a deceased victim must produce a death certificate, barangay certification, proof of filial relationship, and an endorsement from the local disaster council in order to claim the P10,000.
The audit agency also noted the victims only have one year from the time of the calamity to claim the benefit.
"The production alone of the above documents could be very burdensome for some victims, which could be one of the causes of low utilization of the donated funds," the COA said.
If India's contribution makes up half of the donations and the amount is only P25 million then the $59 million USAID is definitely not included in this audit. P10,000 is really nothing. What is that supposed to cover? Burial? Loss of future economic benefits? Ordinarily it would not be a problem to procure those documents needed to prove familial relationship but this is the Philippines so it is a problem. Especially when the documents must be retrieved from a war zone.
So where is all this money? What is it doing? Is it in an interest bearing account somewhere? According to the OCD the money is not missing and is actually being used contrary to the COA report.
In a statement, Ricardo Jalad, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) administrator and OCD executive director, said that as of May 30, a total of P5.164 billion had already been released for the Marawi rehabilitation and reconstruction program, with P4.8 billion released in 2018.
“We would like to assure the public that the funds for the victims of the Marawi siege in the amount of P36.91 million from various donors is still with the OCD and are not missing,” Jalad said.
Jalad said the P36.92 million in donations, which was “just part of the funding source” for the Marawi rehabilitation, was expected to be tapped further after implementing agencies have identified specific projects.
He added that “P5.1 billion (had been) used for different projects, programs and activities (PPAs), such as business and livelihood assistance, housing, land resource management, reconstruction, and health and social services.”
The OCD said that by June, it would have spent another P1 million from the donated funds for a Ramadan holiday project by the TFBM.
“As of this date, the total funding requirement for this year’s [projects are] in the amount of P10 billion, for which the NDRRMC funds only has about P8 billion available.”
P5 billion out of P36 billion is hardly anything. Granted that this money was properly spent on projects in Marawi then why are people still living in tents and why is the city still in ruins two years after the siege? There is absolutely no excuse for at the least the debris to not be cleaned up by now. Take a look at these
before and after pictures of the 2011 Japanese Tsunami. Within two years all the debris was cleaned up. Admittedly Marawi residents
hesitating to give clearance to demolish their buildings is hampering things.
Even though only P10k out of P36m in donations has been spent on a single Marawi victim's family and even though the city is still in ruins despite millions being allotted for the rehabilitation it's not as if Maranaos have received absolutely nothing. A lucky few were sent to Mecca for the Hajj and their tickets were paid directly out of the Marawi rehabilitation fund.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has sought the refund of money spent by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to the cover expenses of victims of the Marawi City siege who went on a Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia last year.
COA also demanded the return of P2,606,000 that HUDCC distributed as rice allowances for officials and employees of the agency, saying that the expenses were considered irregular expenditures.
In the 2018 HUDCC annual audit report released recently, COA said the expenses incurred by internally displaced people in Marawi for the Hajj were considered “unauthorized expenses.”
“Fund Transfer to National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) for the purpose of sending IDPs of Marawi City to Mecca to attend the Hajj in the amount of P5,000,000.00 was not among the authorized expenses in the Memorandum of Agreement executed by the Office of the President and the HUDCC ,” the audit agency said.
The amount spent by HUDCC was part of the P500 million that the Office of the President transferred to HUDCC for operational expenses of the Task Force Bangon Marawi for the recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi City that was attacked by terrorists in 2017.
“Review of the disbursement records for the said fund disclosed that on May 30, 2018, a MOA executed by the HUDCC and NCMF transferring P5,000,000.00 to the NCMF to sponsor participants in the 2018 Hajj for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Marawi City” auditors reported.
Sought to explain the expenditures, the HUDCC said the purpsoe of the transfer of funds “was for social healing of the victims of Marawi siege.”
The explanation was not accepted as auditors stressed that the fund transfer “was not among the authorized expenses enumerated in the original MOA between aOP and HUDCC,” said COA.
Isn't that nice though? Why would the COA make such a ruckus? Marawi victims can get a new house and new city any time but going on the Hajj...why that is a once in a lifetime event for any devout Muslim and now those who went can rest assure they will enter paradise. Who cares if the funds are not specifically allotted for that purpose? And those workers tasked with overseeing the rebuilding of Marawi have to eat. What's so wrong with giving them a rice allowance despite the funds not being for that purpose? The COA just doesn't understand the needs of the people. There is a lot more to rebuilding a city than clearing debris and erecting new buildings. A city is only as good as its people.
One man has filed a lawsuit against the agencies tasked with rebuilding the city saying they have bungled the job by knowingly hiring a contractor who was blacklisted by the World Bank and who they subsequently dropped.
A Marawi resident forced to evacuate his home during the 2017 Marawi siege has filed a complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman against executives of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and National Housing Authority (NHA), saying they had “bungled the full rehabilitation” of the city.
Datu Meno Manabilang, who represents the Voice of Marawi Internally Displaced Persons Association (IDPs), filed a complaint against NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada Jr., NHA Special Bids and Awards Committee Chair Victor Balba and HUDCC Chair Eduardo del Rosario, over the slow rehabilitation of Marawi City.
In his affidavit of complaint, Manabilang said the NHA had failed to award “a proper and valid” contract for the demolition of debris within the city when it gave the demolition contract to CJI General Services Inc.
Manabilang asked the Ombudsman to examine the contract, citing the “bad track record” of the contractors hired by the NHA, and their alleged collusion in an illegal subcontracting scheme.
Knowing how the bureaucracy works in the Philippines it could be years before this case is resolved. Either way the rehabilitation of Marawi will take years. Beyond 2022 for sure. And there is millions being transacted between the government and the contractors they hire. Those Chinese contractors will take that money and run. You know who else will take the money and run? The MILF!
While kin of police commandos brutally killed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao continue to demand justice, the Duterte government is proposing to provide P100,000 in cash to each of the 12,000 MILF guerrillas as a gesture of goodwill and as part of the peace process.
Families of those who died demanded that rebel leader Murad Ebrahim, now Chief Minister of the Muslim autonomous region, surrender those behind the gruesome murders.
The MILF said it would not surrender those involved in the killings.
MILF terrorists who surrendered their weapons will get P100,000 each while the families of the murdered SAF 44 will continue to get NOTHING! What a joke! And the MILF has refused to hand over those responsible for the killings. So much goodwill, eh? Meanwhile the uninformed will continue to condemn Aquino for the death of the SAF 44 while the real killers, the MILF, get off scot-free!
The love of money is the root of all evil which is odd to think about when communists start shaking down poor farmers for money. So much for solidarity with the proletariat. But communists have never been concerned about poor workers and communism has never benefited them either.
“The New People’s Army (NPA) is making the poor farmers their milking cow just to survive,” Lt. Colonel Rhodjun Rosales, the commanding officer of the 39th Infantry Battalion (IB) said of the firefight in an interview by reporters here Friday.
Ironic when the farmer becomes the cow isn't it? Too bad the AFP didn't stop the NPA from extorting politicians during the campaign season even though the PNP claimed to have a list of hundreds of names and said, "We know who you are!"
Extortion is a dangerous game. It's also not very easy. If the NPA really needs money then each rebel should surrender and join the AFP. Then they will get money and benefits.
One of the enlisted personnel whom Go identified through his alias as Rios, reportedly a former vice commander of the NPA operating in Mindanao, thanked the government for giving him and the other former rebels a chance to join the service.
“I have never regretted my decision to return to the folds of the law and so, I call on to those who are still in the mountains, there’s a better life waiting for you here and the NPA will never be able to give you a peaceful life,” Go quoted Rios as saying.
Inspiring words. A state enemy now a state friend. Who else will heed the call?
