This is with reference to the column of Ramon Tulfo titled “The Abads of Batanes.” (Inquirer, 8/11/11)
I write because, unfortunately, Tulfo was given false information by his source.
Allow me to set the record straight:
1. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) allocation for Batanes in the proposed 2012 national budget is P368 million not P800 million as erroneously claimed earlier by Rep. Marc Cagas. Even if the province’s 2011 infrastructure allocation of P182 million is added, the total will not reach P800 million.
2. All congressional districts have their allocations of DPWH infrastructure projects, depending on the length of arterial and secondary roads and bridges that have to be completed and paved.
3. It is pure falsehood that the district of Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas got a zero allocation. In the 2012 budget, the first district of Davao del Sur was allocated by the Department of Public Works and Highways an infrastructure budget of P255 million, up by P60 million from the district’s P195 million allocation in 2011.
4. Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya is the chairperson of the House Appropriations Committee, not Rep. Henedina Abad.
5. The budget was presented to President Aquino and the Cabinet on June 21 and 29, 2011 respectively. Both deliberations took about four hours each. It is not correct to say that the President “reportedly received the proposed budget on the day of the SONA itself.”
6. Presidential Management Staff Secretary Julia Abad has never contemplated resigning. Rather, she has been planning to take a leave of absence because she is about to deliver her first child.
I hope this clarifies the incorrect and misleading information given to Tulfo.
—FLORENCIO B. ABAD,
secretary,
Department of Budget and Management,
Gen. Solano St., San Miguel, Manila