Lawmakers seek P3.4-T worth of projects for Mindanao in 4 years

More than 60 lawmakers from Mindanao including Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez are seeking a total budget of P3.4 trillion for their island over the next four years.

“That is our target. We are proposing that at least 20 percent of the annual national budget be allocated for Mindanao starting next year so the government could reduce poverty in the island,” Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. said yesterday.

He said the consensus was arrived at during a meeting this week of the House committee on Mindanao affairs, which he chairs.

Rodriguez did not give specific annual amounts they would seek each year up to 2022, but if the proposed 20-percent allocation is based on the P4.2-trillion 2019 budget the administration is eyeing, the aggregate figure for the four-year period comes up to P3.36 trillion.

If Rodriguez and his colleagues have their way, Mindanao will have P840 billion in 2019.

He said a study by the House budget research office showed that Mindanao’s share of the national budget averaged 12.8 percent between 2014 and 2017, though it increased to 16.2 percent this year.

Rodriguez said the island had P300 billion out of a national outlay of P2.3 trillion in 2014, P324 billion of P2.8 trillion in 2015, P397 billion out of P3 trillion in 2016 and P416 billion of P3.35 trillion in 2017.

This year, Mindanao is allocated P608 billion out of the P3.8-trillion budget, he said.

“Considering that Min- danao has 40-percent poverty incidence, the annual average of 12.8 percent is too small for our people,” he said.

Rodriguez pointed out that based on the House study, the budget gap between Mindanao and Metro Manila consistently widened over the period reviewed.

The Rodriguez committee has been getting briefings from officials of various government agencies on their budget proposals for Mindanao.

It has created a technical working group (TWG) to review such proposals. The panel is composed of vice chairman Zajid Mangudadatu of Maguindanao, Ruby Sahali of Sulu, Alberto Ungab of Davao City, Aurora Enerio Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur, Nancy Catamco of North Cotabato and Evelyn Mellana of Agusan del Sur.