A leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday expressed dismay over the reversion to the National Treasury of some P406.5 million in 2018 Marawi rehabilitation funds.
Deputy Speaker and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman urged the national government, through Task Force Bangon Marawi, to prevent this from happening to the 2019 and 2020 rehab funds for the war-destroyed city.
“As a leader in the House of Representatives, I will do everything in his power to prevent the 2019 and 2020 Marawi rehabilitation funds from being unused and reverting back to the treasury,” said Hataman.
He also asked Malacañang to conduct a thorough review of the Marawi rehabilitation implementation and make accountable those who have been remiss in their duties to the people.
“Let us learn from what happened to the 2018 Marawi budget, where more than P400 million remained unused and reverted back to the national coffers,” Hataman said.
He also urged the multi-agency TFBM to “spend in full” all the funds allocated for the rehabilitation, recovery and reformation of war-destroyed Marawi City for 2019 and 2020.
“Our good Speaker Alan Cayetano has already promised to do everything to keep the Taal recovery funds from suffering the same fate. Let us use our legislative power and prerogatives to give the people the help they deserve and to prevent another injustice from happening,” he said.
“We are thinking of filing a measure to further ease the release of rehabilitation funds and keep them from expiring, if that is possible. But first we have to determine where the chokepoints and bottlenecks occur,” Hataman said.
