DAVAO CITY – Bayan Muna representative Carlos Zarate asked what would be the sources of Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary and Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas’s campaign funds.
“It seems that they are really bent on building up a more masa image for Mar Roxas, as his face is conspicuous on TV morning shows and with all his campaign ads on TV. But it makes us wonder where Mar Roxas is pulling all the money from. Fifteen seconds on a primetime commercial spot can go upwards from P250,000, while 30 seconds on TV can go upwards from half a million,” Zarate said in a statement on Tuesday.
Zarate said the 2015 budget was described as “an elections budget”.
“The DILG for example, with (Roxas) in the stern, has a whopping P154.5 billion budget in 2015. Ang DILG ay binigyan pa ng pondo para sa pabahay at patubig, na labas na sa mandato nito. Department of Budget and Management secretary Florencio Abad cleverly crafted the 2015 budget to service the allies of the administration (The DILG was given fund for housing and water system which is outside its mandate),” Zarate added.
Zarate said that the large sums of money in strategic departments and the revolving definition of savings “go hand in hand in ensuring money for LP campaign kitties.”
“We saw it last year and we see it again in the budget deliberations this year how the executive is pooling funds in local government units and in LP allies in the bureaucracy.
Funds for local government units increased five-fold in the 2016 National Expenditures Program, because it is common knowledge among politicians that LGUs, up to the barangay level, are the base in ensuring electoral victories for national candidates especially in presidential races,” Zarate said. (davaotoday.com)
