Except for another announcement to revive the Bicol River Basin development Program with funding from the World Bank and her allocation of P7 billion for the rehabilitation of typhoon-ravaged Bicol Region, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had very little to say about the region during her State of the Nation Address last July 23.
She was applauded 105 times indeed and she could have received more had she continued because President Arroyo is really such a tantalizing speaker comparable to the late President Marcos – in eloquence and oratorical prowess we mean – that even her political adversaries could have silently conceded they are no match to the strong-willed leader.
But Bicolanos could only listen with awe and envy as she took her listeners and TV viewers to her well-crafted and well-rehearsed video travelogue to the “super” regions, accentuating more glaringly and made painfully that Bicol is nowhere near the parameters of prosperity of such power-blessed areas. And to think that we have some of the most vociferous leaders in the country today: in the Senate, Joker Arroyo, Gringo Honasan, Jamby Madrigal, Chiz Escudero and if Antonio Trillanes is indeed a Bicolano also by affi nity or whatever, what a tumultuous team of fi ghters Bicol has, with words and even with guns.
But a team of grandstanders Bicol senators appear to be, all sound and fury signifying nothing, hollow rhetorics that only tantamount to self-aggrandizement. What specifi c development agenda for Bicol have veterans like Joker Arroyo proposed and pursued? So much venom had spewed out from the tongues of Madrigal and Escudero, and more are to be expected from rebel soldier Trillanes. Unrelenting sarcasm against GMA alone but none of the awaited initiatives for Bicol growth.
What can BRBdP do if revived? Go back to decades of data gathering and endless and expensive conferences without resulting in concrete projects? BRBDP had been here from 1973 to 1990 using up enormous funding from USAId, Asian development Bank, World Bank and, of course, the GOP counterpart. It spent so much funds for planning and for highly-paid consultants but most of the plans were shelved and very few projects were implemented. It was suspected to have wasted millions of dollars in corruption, too.
And where is this much publicized P7 billion rehabilitation fund? How true are rumors circulating all over Albay and Camarines Sur that much of the huge outlay had been eaten up in anomalous desilting and ghost road repair projects immediately before the election?
Obviously, Malacañang has not been monitoring properly and tolerating that projects under the controversial Php 7 billion rehab fund are concealed from the people and this is an issue that could soon explode on the face of the administration.
Meantime, Bicol remains where it has been since time immemorial: among the three poorest regions in the country.
