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SONA promises to cost taxpayers P1 billion ? Salceda
By Jess Diaz
The Philippine Star 07/26/2006
The promises of massive infrastructure building that President Arroyo made in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday will cost taxpayers at least P1 trillion up to 2010, one of her economic advisers said yesterday.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said a total of P1.021 trillion would be needed to fund the new airports, roads, irrigation systems and other infrastructure that the President promised to undertake during the remainder of her term.
However, he said the program unveiled by Mrs. Arroyo would not require additional taxes on the already overburdened Filipino taxpayers.
"With RVAT (Reformed Value Added Tax) Law and a behaved BOC (Bureau of Customs) and BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), the national government can readily finance the P1.021-trillion worth of infra from 2006 to 2010," he said.
Salceda chairs the House appropriations committee, the panel that scrutinizes the annual budget. He dabbles as an occasional adviser on the economy of Mrs. Arroyo, who was his Ateneo economics teacher. His committee would have to include funds in the yearly budget to fill his teacher?s promises.
He was obviously responding to questions raised by administration critics on where the government would get the money to fund the President?s "grandiose" plans.
In her SONA, Mrs. Arroyo promised to group the nation?s more than 7,000 islands into four "super regions" and jumpstart their development with massive infrastructure building.
Her listeners, including hundreds of local officials from the provinces, liked what they heard and gave her resounding thunderous applause.
Salceda said aside from the P1.021 trillion, additional infrastructure investments would come from local governments, government corporations and the private sector.
"Local governments are mandated to cough out P248 billion, while state corporations can do P200 billion. The private sector can invest P225 billion in BOT (build-operate-transfer) projects," he said.
"That totals to P1.62 trillion ? roughly 4.1 percent of gross domestic product, which is our infra-to-GDP target to lift our competitiveness," he said.
Salceda stressed that the infrastructure program is crucial in boosting the country?s global competitiveness and in reducing poverty incidence among the population.
He pointed out that in the 2004 world competitiveness survey, the Philippines ranked 59th out of 60 nations in terms of infrastructure building.
Two other Arroyo loyalists, Rep. Joel Mayo Almario of Davao Oriental and Eduardo Zialcita of Para?aque, called on all sectors to contribute to the realization of the President?s promises for the sake of the nation.
"We should not ask where the government will get the funds but rather ask what each one of us, including those in the opposition, can do to contribute and help," the two said in a joint statement.
For her part, Rep. Risa Hontiveros of the party-list group Akbayan said the planned mega projects would mean "mega kickbacks" for corrupt national and local officials.
She said going by conservative estimates, at least 20 percent of the hundreds of billions of pesos that would be spent for the projects would be lost to corruption.
GMA to ask private sector to help pay for spending plan
The Philippine Star 07/26/2006
President Arroyo will ask the private sector to do some of the heavy lifting to get her massive public investment plan off the ground, a senior aide said yesterday.
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya also assured critics that the plans outlined by the President during her State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday could be paid for.
"We have enough cash," Andaya told dzBB radio. "Not all of the funds would have to come from the national budget."
Critics doubt the government can pay the estimated half a trillion pesos tagged for building airports, ports, railways, ferry links and irrigation systems to connect the sprawling archipelago and thus lower the cost of doing business.
Andaya said increased tax collection likely led to a P12-billion budget surplus in the first half, compared to the P15-billion deficit target.
"Government-owned and -controlled corporations will also pitch in, and there will be BOT (build-operate-transfer) projects for the private sector," he added.
The budget chief said most of the port building and upgrades mentioned by the President would be undertaken by the private sector under BOT or similar terms. "Only about two of these projects mentioned by the President will be funded by the national budget."
In her SONA before a joint session of Congress, Mrs. Arroyo vowed to build or upgrade 20 airports.
Andaya said local governments would also pitch in for some projects, including provincial airports.
He explained the spending program would not alter the government?s target to balance the national budget by 2008.
"What we will spend will not come from debt alone, we also have extra revenues," he noted. "This plan is not really ambitious as they say."
Andaya said the public would get a better understanding of the government-funded components of the program when the President submits the 2007 national budget bill to the House of Representatives next month.
The 2007 budget should have a P46-billion outlay for infrastructure, of which "only P10 billion" is needed to jump-start the projects mentioned by Mrs. Arroyo, he added.
Meanwhile, members of the House majority rallied yesterday behind the President?s economic blueprint.
In a statement, Reps. Joel Mayo Almario and Eduardo Zialcita also urged their colleagues in Congress to buckle down to work to fulfill these government programs.
Almario and Zialcita said the President?s economic development plan up to 2010 "may sound too ambitious to opposition skeptics, but the solons believe this will open new doors for investments and job opportunities for their constituents."
Both lawmakers clarified that they did not applaud the President?s programs of establishing "four super regions" because they belong to the majority, "but because of the benefits" to people outside the National Capital Region.
"And for the people?s sake, all sectors must contribute and help towards its achievement," Almario said, urging the President?s detractors "to stop partisan politicking and productive criticizing and do your part for the success of the economic program."
