Allocations for 'peace roads' in Mindanao realigned?

COTABATO CITY – North Cotabato Rep. Bernardo Piñol Jr. has asked the national government to look into what could be the “realignment” to Luzon and the Visayas of funds earmarked for supposed peace and development road projects for Mindanao of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). 

Piñol, in an e-mailed statement, said he has requested the House committee on appropriations to help him determine if the allocated P4-billion 2008 grant for “roads to support peace and development in Mindanao and other conflict areas” were indeed spent for its rightful purpose.

Piñol said there is also a proposal to augment the initial grant with P8 billion for 2009.

“It is insulting and downgrading to find that areas of conflict in Mindanao like North Cotabato have not received any amount from the allocation ever since,” he said.

Piñol said talk has been circulating that funds for these road projects in Mindanao have been realigned to Luzon and the Visayas.

Piñol has recommended the allocation of P200 million in the proposed 2009 General Appropriations Act for the concreting and partial completion of the Paco-Kidapawan City-Arakan Valley-Bukidnon and Davao City road networks under the DPWH allocation for these “roads for peace.”

“Government neglect of this stretch of this vital highway network has made it easy for communist rebels to convince some people to support their cause. On the other hand, Muslim separatists have made the area as their areas of expansion,” he said.

The North Cotabato provincial board passed last week a resolution asking the Senate to investigate the alleged discrepancy in the allocation of the DPWH for “roads for peace” in Mindanao.