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| Former Gov. Aristeo M. Lecaroz (1967-1988) |
“The planned loan is counter-productive, unreasonable, unnecessary, and certainly out of time”, apparently with the filing of certificates of candidacies for next year’s elections to be conducted in October this year.
A petition by former Governor of
Marinduque, Aristeo M. Lecaroz and more than 1,000 registered voters to repeal the
relevant Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolutions No. 637 and 710 was filed recently.
" It will
only aggravate the already dwindling finances of the province” as it could be
used instead “to more socially and morally responsive undertakings geared
towards the upliftment of the lives of the people of Marinduque”, the petition stated.
On May 2, 2012, the
Sangguniang Panlawigan passed Resolution No. 637 “authorizing the Honorable
Governor Carmencita O. Reyes to negotiate a loan agreement with the Development
Bank of the Philippines (DBP), for the proposed improvement of the road network infrastructure
development project in the province of Marinduque, subject to the ratification
by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.”
Petitioners maintain that
the loan intended for such road networks may be funded through other government
sources citing as an example the allocation for infrastructure projects
provided in the General Appropriations Act and administered by the Department
of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) “is sufficient enough to address the
infrastructure concerns of the current dispensation”.
A later amendment (Resolution
No. 710 of July 4, 2012), was made by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan granting
authority to Gov. Reyes to negotiate a loan agreement not only
with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), but also with any
government or private financial institutions for the intended loan to be used
for “road network infrastructure development projects”, this time adding the
phrase “and other priority socio economic development programs”.
Opinions expressed by
some people in government as well as individuals attached the issue on the
possibility that the real purpose of the loan is to raise huge campaign money
for election purposes. The filing of certificates of candidacy for next year’s
elections comes in just a couple of months, in October.
Gov. Carmencita O. Reyes
is the octogenarian governor of Marinduque. Her
political career now spans forty one (41) years. She was Marinduque’s delegate
to the Constitutional Convention convened in 1971. The closeness of ‘Delegada’,
as she was fondly called then, to the Marcoses during the Martial Law days is of
public knowledge. She was Interim and Regular Assemblywoman for Marinduque from
1978 to 1986 (up to Edsa Revolution), then Congress Representative from 1987 to
1998, Governor from 1998 to 2007, Congresswoman from 2007 to 2010, then Governor
from 2010 up to the present (2012).
It will be recalled that Reyes posted bail in the amount of Php 60,000 on charges of technical malversation apart from violation of the anti-graft law in connection with the Php 728-million fertilizer scam.
It will be recalled that Reyes posted bail in the amount of Php 60,000 on charges of technical malversation apart from violation of the anti-graft law in connection with the Php 728-million fertilizer scam.
Culture-laden, beautiful island
Marinduque that was bruited about by international travel watchers two years
ago as one of world’s top islands occupying the No. 2 spot then, is one of the
country’s smallest provinces with only six municipalities, its people still stuck
to an ‘impoverished kind of living’.
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