PGMA Billboards On Infra Sites Hit, Chiz: Instead, Replace It With Tax Audit

Instead of having the president pose as a billboard model in Malacanang’s “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran”, billboards in public works construction sites, opposition Senator Chiz Escudero last week proposed that it be replaced with those that list down the approved budget of a project, the construction period, and the name of the winning bidder.

Escudero said the Palace should haul all these billboards down and put that yardage of tarpaulin which government buys in bulk to better use. Escudero aired this proposal as a way of ensuring transparency in government projects.

“If the palace cannot help claiming ownership of projects which they owe the people in the first place, they can use these spaces to better use by putting up billboards which list down the vital statistics of a project”. “I think that serves a public purpose more than having the President pose as a billboard model,” he said.

Escudero was referring to PIA-ordered tarpaulins featuring the said slogan and a photo of President Arroyo and which are erected near where infrastructures are being built. According to Escudero, these are announcements short on project details but profuse in thanking Malacacang as if it is the one and not the taxpayers who are footing the bills.

He proposed a return to the old practice of “itemizing the details of a project in a billboard which is put up where a road or a school building is being built.” He said the rule requiring the announcement of the “vital statistics” of a project based on details submitted to the Commission on Audit has not yet been repealed.

“By announcing the baseline information of a project, the citizens will be encouraged to monitor its construction so it can be finished on time, on the budget, and according to plan,” he said. These billboards are important, Escudero stressed, because data on a project which otherwise could have been kept from the people are now revealed for their scrutiny.

“An overprice can also be detected. For example, people can make comparison. Kung ang isang eskwelahan sa isang barrio ay nagkakahalaga ng dalawang milyon bakit ang kapareho nito na ginagawa sa kabilang barrio ay isang milyon lang ang gastos?” he said.

Earlier, Escudero bared that the government racked up a total of 33 billion pesos in overprice of 21 ODA-related projects. “From being eyesores, government billboards can be an eye opener to the public if they are informed as a matter of courtesy of how their taxes are spent”, stressed Escudero. /MP