Funding assistance duly accounted for

THIS IS in reference to my inclusion in the news report “COA links 49 solons to new pork, DAP scam” (Front Page, 5/12/15).

I admit that I was granted in 2011 and 2012 funding assistance for “soft projects.” The two years’ allotments were both channeled through the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos. And, I wish to state categorically, that both these funded projects were fully implemented, and that they ultimately reached the intended beneficiaries in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan, thus:

1. In 2011, the first project received a funding of P1 million; it sought to provide livelihood trainings in massage therapy and cell phone repair. The accredited implementing NGO was Workphil Foundation Inc. It is worthy to mention that all the trainees under the cell phone repair program were issued certificates of competency in cellphone repair by the Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority, leading to “Consumer Electronic Servicing”—NCII. The trainees for massage therapy, on the other hand, were issued the National Certificate II; and

2. The second project received a funding of P2,776,300. It was implemented in 2012 to provide small and medium livelihood trainings in commercial ice cream production. The implementing NGO was the Coprahan at Gulayan Foundation Inc.

Again, may I emphasize that the implementation of these projects were both “above-board,” and that these training programs ultimately reached the intended beneficiaries. This assertion is duly vouched for by the Certificates of Completion issued by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos and by the terminal and liquidation reports of their implementing NGOs.

—REP. ARTURO B. ROBES,
San Jose del Monte City