Isabela VM demands tobacco tax funds audit
REINA Mercedes Vice Mayor Harold Respicio highlights alleged municipal infrastructure irregularities during a public briefing in Isabela on Monday. Respicio questioned local tobacco excise tax spending on uncompleted projects — including a bridge, public market, lagoon park, and bus terminal — and urged authorities to reallocate funds to increase direct financial assistance for local tobacco farmers.
Reina Mercedes Vice Mayor Harold Respicio challenged Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla to investigate alleged infrastructure irregularities in the municipality tied to tobacco excise tax allocations.
In a live video broadcast, Respicio showcased documents from an open field surrounded by uncompleted structures, citing them as evidence of substandard and ghost infrastructure projects funded through municipal tobacco excise tax revenues.
Respicio alleged that a P30-million allocation earmarked in 2022 for a local lagoon park resulted in no built infrastructure. He further highlighted a separate P30-million allocation from the same fiscal year intended for a farm-to-market road and retaining wall that remains uncompleted.
The vice mayor also questioned the condition of additional municipal facilities, including an overgrown transportation terminal, a public market with minimal tenant occupancy, an unrepaired damaged bridge, and a P9-million landscaping and playground project in front of the municipal hall that he claimed appeared disproportionately priced.
Respicio urged national Cabinet officials to facilitate a site inspection across the municipality’s 20 barangays, stating that his primary goal is leveraging an audit to secure higher direct cash assistance for local tobacco farmers before the upcoming planting season.
The municipal government currently proposes P30,000 per hectare in financial support, but Respicio is lobbying to elevate that payout to between P45,000 and P60,000 per hectare, pointing to provincial government assistance models.