SENATOR Sherwin T. Gatchalian has filed a resolution, seeking to review the status and sustainability of the government’s massive infrastructure program.
Senate Resolution 759 called for an inquiry on the financial requirements of the “Build, Build, Build” program to ensure “transparency, accountability and prudent use of loans,” according to Mr. Gatchalian, who also heads the Senate committee on economic affairs.
“It is incumbent upon us senators, in the exercise of our power of the purse, to ensure that public funds diverted from health, education, and social services financing for debt services payment are properly appropriated,” Mr. Gatchalian said in a statement Sunday.
Mr. Gatchalian said the Official Development Assistance (ODA) will fund only 40 out of the 75 approved infrastructure projects as of July 2017, which will cost P1.006 trillion.
The Duterte administration is expected to spend P8 to 9 trillion from 2017 to 2022, about P1.4 trillion annually, for the infrastructure program.
The government has incurred a total of P6.65 trillion in debt as of December 2017, noting too that P329.05 billion was allocated to debt servicing in the General Appropriations Act of 2018. — C.A.T.

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