Baguio to return more than P100-M project funds

BAGUIO CITY — Baguio City Councilor Mylen Yaranon sighed her disappointment at the insistence of the Baguio City government to handle the bidding and implementation of infrastructure projects but ended up having the project funds returned because of violations.

It was revealed that the City Government of Baguio has to return more than P100 million in funds to the national government. The said amount was intended to fund infrastructure projects in the city and was acquired through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – Cordillera.

Under the General Appropriations Act (GAA), the amount should be returned after the Commission on Audit (COA) and the DPWH discovered various violations in the implementation of the projects as well as the utilization of the intended funds.

The said projects are the so-called Youth Center in the Baguio Athletic Bowl where DPWH provided a counterpart fund of P50 million. However, the COA disallowed the earlier P25 million based on its 2022 audit report. The audit department stresses that the city government did not properly disburse the funding it had acquired from the DPWH.

Because of the issue, the DPWH did not anymore release the remaining P25 million. Thus, the city government must return the  P25 million to the national government.

Other projects are the multipurpose building at Wright Park with P29.4 million funding and the basic infrastructure program (BIP) for the construction of a supposed to be multi-purpose hall in Lualhati, Barangay with P49.5 million funding. 

The fund is part of the regular infrastructure program of the DPWH for 2022. This was downloaded to the Baguio City government for the latter to implement.

The two mentioned projects are considered Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Alleviating Gaps (SIPAG) of the government. An amount of P40 million was earlier downloaded. 

Yaranon stressed that the city government does not trust the winning bidding contractors of the Baguio City District Engineering Office (DPWH-BCDEO) and insisted that the local government unit will be the one to look for contractors. The city government, the councilor said was always complaining of alleged substandard outputs of the projects of the contractors who bid with the DPWH.

She said that the outcome of the projects handled by the city government is no different from the projects the city administration was questioning because of the many violations.

Baguio Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda said someone should be held accountable, saying instead of the city having big savings from having infrastructure projects because of the financial assistance from the national government, Baguio is now in hot water because of the poor standard outputs of the contractors the city government had transacted with and the very poor monitoring and supervision of the concerned agencies of the city government.

Tabanda said the LGU must go after the contractors and let them pay.