Press Release
October 12, 2009

Transcript of interview with Senator Miriam Santiago

On Albay Gov. Salceda's proposal to seek $1 billion in foreign grants and loans for an reconstruction fund due to the storms Ondoy and Pepeng

I don't think the proposal to make another commission or another layer of bureaucracy just to borrow $1 billion is sustainable and I humbly propose that it should not be implemented. Number one, it is not sustainable because there are three or four typhoons left before the end of the year according to the weather forecasters. Meaning to say, if every time we have a calamity, do we have to borrow $1 billion and add to the foreign debt? People are always decrying foreign debt, and if this is the proposal, it means that we will go deeper and deeper into debt. We will not have enough funds left except for debt service if that is the case.

The second criticism of that proposal is that it seeks to create an ad hoc body for disaster preparedness. If it is only an ad hoc body, then the next president will be perfectly correct in dissolving it because that would lie within his authority. Plus, it include as one of its vice-chairs a Catholic cardinal. I thought we had separation of church and state in this country! That is definitely going to be controversial.

Plus, why don't we just pass in the House of Representatives a bill already passed here in the Senate? I was one of the authors of that bill, the Philippine Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Act of 2009. All of these are provided for there.

Also, the ambition to borrow $1 billion is not as simple as it seems. There are so many other calamity-stricken areas in Asia today. It is not only the Philippines; it has recently been Samoa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia. It might be that foreign creditors may not have enough money.

Finally, if we need money, why don't we get it from already existing funds. For example, as I've pointed out time and again, the motor vehicle users' charge is expected to raise about P9 billion. What is the problem? According to law, that money should go solely and exclusively only for maintenance of roads and improvement of drainage systems. It is almost like calling it a flood control bill. So where did the money go? I really want to know. But, in addition to that, where is the money going for 2009? As I've already said, last year, as we were working on the budget for this year, we gave more than Malacañang asked for two government agencies, one is DPWH and another is for DA.

That proposal, I think, is just a measure of the hysteria that has arisen because people are afraid.

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