Marañon: Concerned agencies should be blamed for Sida budget cut

NEGROS Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said yesterday that concerned agencies that managed the funds for the Sugarcane Industry Development Act should be blamed for the budget cut of P1.5 billion for 2019.

The budget approved for Sida for 2019 is P500 million.

“If it was given to the province, it could have been used for several projects. The one to be blamed here are the agencies who manage that funds,” he pointed out.

The Sida fund allocation of P2 billion every year is intended for infrastructure for farm to mill roads, P1 billion; credit, P300 million; scholarship, P100 million; block farm of the land reform beneficiaries, P300 million; and shared facilities program, P300million.

The governor said there are several sugar roads that need to be repaired and concreted and that mechanization is also an urgent need especially at this time when there’s a lack of sugar workers or laborers, which is one of the problems of the sugar industry.

Marañon said he

agrees with the move of the Department of Budget and Management of giving the unspent funds for other department or agencies that could fully utilize the funds.

Meanwhile, the governor expressed belief that the inflation rate would definitely go down because of the rollback on the prices of fuels and the decrease in the value of dollars against the Philippine peso.

Unlike in Metro Manila, the prices of rice in the province have also gone down, he added.

“The National Food Authority should be blamed because they should have preempted the situation by bringing an imported rice because the situation worsened,” the governor said.*