Unequal progress: Municipalities in Aurora province received inequitable funding from PDAF

Susana Gatchalian still remembers the destruction Typhoon Labuyo brought to Aurora.

When the storm hit, Susana didn’t have enough time to get her children to higher ground before the river near their home overflowed. There was no flood control project in Barangay Lawang so their house and many others were left unprotected from the disaster.

Her family was one of many that sought refuge in the cramped barangay hall. They stayed in the barangay hall until they managed to construct a makeshift shelter not far from where they used to live.

After five months, Susana and the 14 other members of her family were ready to go home.


At the very least

Susana’s home was one of the 133 totally damaged houses in Aurora when Labuyo struck in 2013. Two bridges, which were part of the road linking Dilasag to Casiguran, were also destroyed. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) placed the cost of damaged infrastructure at 42 million pesos.

Nearly a year after Labuyo, residents of Dilasag town continue to walk and drive on graded roads topped with gravel.

Aurora is one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines. According to the 2012 poverty statistics of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), three out of ten families in the province are poor.

Dilasag, on the other hand, was third out of the eight municipalities in Aurora in terms of poverty. Its internal revenue allotment for the year 2014 was one of the least--only besting Dinalungan, another northern municipality, with a little less than four million pesos.

“Kulang din iyong pondo hanggang sa papatse-patse lang; kaunting tambak ng graba, buhangin tapos grader,” said Dilasag Mayor Victorio Briones when asked what the municipality did to address the road issue. “Masakit… iyong gusto mong gawin na para sa bayan, hindi mo magawa dahil sa pondo.”


Angara country

When Aurora separated from Quezon in 1958, the first elected governor-general was Dr. Juan C. Angara, father of the former senator Edgardo Angara. It was through him that the Angara line in the province was firmly established.

In 2010, four of Dr. Angara’s descendants were seated in positions of power both locally and nationally. Edgardo Angara was then a senator while his son, Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara was the Congressman of the Lone District of Aurora. Edgardo’s sister, Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, was the provincial governor and another brother, Arthur, was the mayor of their bailiwick, Baler.

The officials also served full terms --and once term-limited, switched posts. Arthur was the mayor of Baler for 18 years, the longest time anyone held a mayoral post in the municipality. Before Sonny became a congressman, his seat in congress was occupied by Bellaflor. Now that Sonny is a senator, Bellaflor returned to congress after serving nine years as governor of Aurora.

With all their influence through all their years of service, Aurora is, indeed, Angara country.


Allocating funds

Subject to the control of the Angaras were funds for the priority projects of the province. Bellaflor, as governor, managed several million pesos of Aurora’s internal revenue allotment (IRA) while Sonny, as congressman, had access to at least 420 million pesos from his priority development assistance fund (PDAF). 

 

However, a closer look at Sonny’s pork barrel revealed that municipalities in his district did not receive equal funding from his PDAF.

The bulk of Sonny’s pork dedicated to infrastructure projects went to the municipalities of Maria Aurora and Baler, equivalent to more than twice the amount he allocated each to the municipalities of Dinalungan and Dilasag.

Based on data from the Commission on Elections, Maria Aurora and Baler listed the highest number of registered voters in the province while Dinalungan and Dilasag had the fewest.

Aside from the disparity of registered voters, Baler had been the family’s domain since Joselito Angara, Edgardo’s youngest brother, was elected mayor in 1980.

Maria Aurora, on the other hand, is the municipality which Sonny sought to divide through a bill he filed in 2007. The bill sought to create a new town named Municipality of Dr. Juan C. Angara.

The infrastructure projects Sonny implemented were roads, bridges, water supply, school buildings, and flood control projects.

No shortcomings

“Bilang kinatawan of nine years talagang sinikap ko na maging pantay doon sa walong bayan,” Sonny said in an interview with the host of Investigative Documentaries, Malou Mangahas. “But of course… hindi maiiwasan na iyong mga bigger towns, mas malaki rin ang pondo na mapupunta doon.”

Based on the NSCB’s figures, Maria Aurora is third in terms of land area, bettered by Casiguran and San Luis --but San Luis was one of the municipalities that received the least allocation along with Dilasag.

Baler, also, is the smallest municipality in terms of land area.

In a separate interview, former senator Edgardo Angara said that he had no shortcoming in Aurora as a public servant for a national position.

“I think I did more than my share because hindi naman ako Aurora lang e,” he said. “But marami pa akong dapat gawin para sa [mga taga-Aurora].”


Somewhere in the middle

When asked whether the Angaras were a good or bad political clan, Sonny said that they were “somewhere in the middle.”

“Siyempre tao rin kami, nagkakamali rin kami.  Sa mga ibang aksiyon namin, iyong mga programa na palagay ko nagkamali rin kami ng kaunti. But on the whole, I think tama naman iyong ginawa namin,” Sonny said.

“Walang partikular na programang nasa isip kayo kung saan kayo nagkamali?” Mangahas asked.

Sonny smiled and laughed a little. “I-correct na muna natin, Malou, bago natin sabihin." -- NB, GMA News