by TITA C. VALDERAMA

Still, a singular narrative string flows through the story: a viral kind of politics has been institutionalized in the awarding of contracts by the DPWH. This is exacerbated as well by the phenomena of pork barrel, congressional insertions and various lump-sum funds from which politicians have dipped their fingers, at will almost, to roll out their pet projects.

BEFORE SHE — bids good-bye as president — an event that is supposed to happen next year — Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had planned to spend P2.03 trillion ($42.7 billion) on infrastructure projects between 2007 and 2010. By all accounts, she is hoping that these projects would earn her the legacy she so covets, as well as the gratitude of a people she would have served for nine years.

	Political allies and foes alike of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have secured comparatively bigger volumes and values of civil-works contracts. [photo by Tita Valderama]

Yet before she could spend a single centavo, Arroyo has had to muster the numbers in Congress, which wields the illusory “power of the purse,” and have her budget approved.

This means going through a favors-trading routine with lawmakers, who guard their budget power so jealously that they demand to be consulted on any projects planned for their respective legislative districts.

Indeed, the legislators approved the 2007 budget only after imputing P17.40-billion worth of their own pet projects or congressional insertions, and the 2008 budget, with another P11.50 billion.

At her government's launch in 2001, a political analyst has christened Arroyo as “the transactional president,” owing mainly to her predilection for striking deals with friends and foes alike, supposedly for as long as these could bolster her command of and hold on power. A visible pattern of deal-making in the public-works sector over the last seven years affirms this judgment.

	NEXT PART 2 shows how four congressmen and a governor have direct personal and family interests in business entities that had been awarded multi-million peso contracts by the DPWH.

Under the Arroyo administration, infrastructure development has been consistently receiving a hefty share of the annual national budget.

For 2009, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) got P130 billion, the second biggest portion out of the P1.41-trillion budget. This was more than a quarter higher than its share in 2008 despite recent World Bank reports of corruption in road projects.

VIRAL KIND OF POLITICS
At first glance, it would seem that such generous allotments have finally made it possible for projects to be spread more evenly across the country, with less weight given to politics.

The PCIJ’s study of 27,535 public-works contracts awarded by the DPWH from 2000 to 2008 in fact indicates that even areas identified with Arroyo’s political foes had more civil-works projects compared to other places. Among the cellar-dwellers in the DPWH civil-works registry posted on its website, meanwhile, are districts held by Arroyo allies.

Further investigation, however, reveals that politics remains the deciding factor on where the money goes and how it is spent.

Worse, it is a viral kind of politics that serves individual interests instead of communal needs and national concerns, and which has opened up the system to even more corruption and abuse.

For decades, funds have been held hostage to politics, with many projects dying at conception stage as other less urgent, poorly studied projects pitched by politicians overtook them.

DATO AND MIKEY
Ties to the Palace have also been taken as another guarantee of loads of projects, which is why it is no longer a shock to learn that the Camarines Sur district represented by the president’s younger son, neophyte congressman Diosdado ‘Dato’ Arroyo, has gotten 86 public-works contracts worth P342.65 million in just 15 months, or since he sat in Congress in July 2007.

This amount is more than what had been implemented in the last eight years by the regional engineering offices in Western Visayas (Region 6), Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), and Soccsksargen (Region 12), and 72 district engineering offices across the country.

It is also already more than 40 percent the total value of the contracts received since 2004 by the second district of Pampanga, which is represented by the president’s elder son, two-term congressman Juan Miguel ‘Mikey’ Arroyo.

Mikey Arroyo’s district has bagged projects worth a total of P808.79 million in the last four years.

But while districts held by Palace enemies used to be severely deprived of public-works projects, a former congressman who held a key House position says that the allocation of funds for public-works projects no longer follows partisan lines.

In part, this is why some districts held by opposition politicians sometimes appear to have received more projects and funding from agencies than those who have stayed on with the administration.

ERIN AND NERIC
Lorenzo 'Erin' Tañada III, for instance, says that before he was told about it by PCIJ, he had no inkling that the fourth district of Quezon, which he represents, received a total of P2.68 billion worth of projects from the DPWH from contracts awarded between July 2004 and September 2008. He says he has had difficulty getting his pork barrel released since he joined efforts in Congress to impeach President Arroyo.

Tañada said he even approached Michael Defensor, then Arroyo's chief of staff, before the 2007 polls to help him get funds for his district. Tañada recalls: “When Mike came back to me, he said he talked to the president and that she said ‘na kung gusto nating tulungan ‘yung distrito (if we want to help the district), Erin should not benefit.’ Maybe they were thinking that I might use it for re-election purposes.”

Jessica Cantos, Tañada’s chief of staff, says the DPWH projects in Quezon’s fourth district were all implemented by the national government through the district engineering office. She says the engineering office at times asks for their help in following up matters with the Palace. “But sometimes it doesn’t help when we do the asking,” says Cantos.

In Bukidnon, the district once represented by J. Nereus 'Neric' Acosta at the House received more projects — both in value and in number — than that held by Arroyo’s allies, the Zubiris.

Acosta represented the first district of Bukidnon for three terms. He lost in his 2007 gubernatorial bid to veteran politician Jose Zubiri. Acosta has been identified with the opposition since joining the impeachment moves against Arroyo in 2005. Yet DPWH records show that his district received 77 contracts valued at P247.13 million from April 2004 to September 2008 while that held by the Zubiris had only two contracts worth P1.68 million awarded in March 2005 and February 2007.

At least 37 of the contracts for Acosta’s district — worth P161.94 million — were awarded between April 2004 and June 2007 while he was still in Congress.

'PARTI-PARTIHAN LANG'
“Wala nang party sa ganyan, puro partihan na lang (Party affiliation does not count anymore, it’s all about dividing the spoils),” the ex-legislator says, making it clear that this is not a positive development at all.

Yet, it’s not as if the opposition politicians are meant to benefit from any windfall their districts get. “Sometimes they (the administration) prefer to put more money in opposition areas, especially where the politician does not interfere in biddings, because that’s where they can manipulate the process,” explains the former congressman. “Mas malaki ang kita kasi hindi na kasali ‘yung congressman sa hatian (The kickback is bigger because the congressman does not get a share).”

More often than not, opposition lawmakers are surprised when told their districts had received a considerable number of public-works projects.