One provincial board member of Camarines Sur was asked some three weeks ago if they ever knew how the P2.050 billion recently borrowed by the provincial government from the DBP would be specifically spent and how the province would be able to pay the astronomical sum. The provincial official was further asked if the terms of the loan and the collaterals involved were made known to them. To all four crucial and vital questions the answer was an identical, pathetic no.
That is tantamount to abdication of duty and responsibility, a betrayal of the trust of the people who voted them into office believing they would at all times protect their welfare and interest.
And why did they acquiesce to the insistence of Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte that the provincial government needed to avail of such gargantuan loan? Because, the provincial board member said, every Sangguniang Panlalawigan member was already signing and because no one questioned the propriety and necessity of the then proposed loan. That means we have in the present Sangguniang Panlalawigan the meekest and most subservient pack of “honorable” officials who would see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.
Were there any concessions? No one knows but several board members have been heard to be saying that pecuniary benefits they had received from Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte when he was governor were nothing compared to favors they are getting from the son now. Well, for as long as those favors are above board and legal they are beyond us.
But favors or no favors Sangguniang Panlalawigan members are supposed to be guided by their sworn duty to serve the interest of the people, especially with regards to financial matters.
For indeed, even while LGUs are allowed under the Local Government Code to borrow money for viable undertakings careful study should always be done before any such risk is incurred because banks by all means will collect both principal and interest.
The provincial government seems to be very secretive on financial transactions and had not even issued any press release on the huge obligation until Manila Bulletin came out with a newsstory in its December 14, 2007 issue presumably from the DBP.
DBP was jubilant because it does not stand to lose in the unprecedented transaction as it is presumed to have ensured that all collaterals it could garnish could sufficiently cover the loan. I said unprecedented because never before in the history of the province has a loan of this magnitude been incurred, the biggest being in the vicinity of half a billion pesos which the province already found very difficult to pay.
After Manila Bulletin played up the story it was the only time one provincial official took to the air lanes to announce that the loan had been approved. If the metropolitan media had not come out with the story it is doubtful if a public admission of the loan would have been made.
| By authorizing the P2.050 Billion loan with the DBP without asking any question Camarines Sur Sangguniang Panlalawigan members abdicated their duty and responsibility and betrayed the trust of the people who voted them into office. |
It was said, echoing the Manila Bulletin story, that the loan would be used for tourism projects in Caramoan, the provincial capitol complex and in Lake Buhi and in the construction of school buildings – all undertakings that are basically not the responsibility of the provincial government. Is it a sound policy of governance to borrow so big an amount beyond the normal means and capacity of borrower to pay to underwrite projects outside of the duty of the province to implement?
While there was a broad admission of where the money would be spent, there was no quantification as to how much would go for an specific undertaking and the public does not know how much interest would be paid, how much would be the yearly amortization and for how long would the province be chained to the colossal indebtedness. More importantly, the people are groping in the dark as to what provincial properties were offered as collaterals.
These are very important elements that the people ought to know because governors and board members just like other elective officials are transients in the government and there have been cases of many unscrupulous officials who borrow recklessly leaving the excruciating task of
paying to their successors. But that is all right if borrowed funds are judiciously spent for the benefit of constituents and not for some personal agenda. Some officials take advantage of the loaning privilege under the decentralization law not because projects are really urgently needed but because their eyes are set on the probable financial windfall from projects.
We hope this is not the case with the provincial government of Camarines Sur, but even then board members should have meticulously scrutinized whether from the projects to which the borrowed money would be funneled the provincial government could generate within the loan time frame sufficient income to pay back the loan. But, alas, how could they when no board member knows to what specific projects the money would go?
If the whole P2.050 billion is availed of, on top of an existing loan of around half a billion pesos, the interest charges alone could run to about P200 million annually, equivalent to the entire annual local development fund of the province. Which could mean that in the next few years the province could not anymore implement any development project from its own fund since loans are priority obligations.
Transparency remains a myth and a farce in the government that is why surreptitious transactions still easily get through. More tragic is the fact that supposed government watchdogs like COA who must at all times protect the interest of the people by the simple act of laying the cards open are acting like tamed surrogates. Such behaviour and actuation inevitably leave the door to speculations on whether they are just afraid to step on some toes or they are conspirators, which one day could end up in painful consequences.
