{"id":237748,"date":"2019-11-18T20:16:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T01:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=237748"},"modified":"2019-11-20T02:04:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T07:04:39","slug":"solon-wants-senate-to-probe-p50-m-sea-games-cauldron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/18\/solon-wants-senate-to-probe-p50-m-sea-games-cauldron\/","title":{"rendered":"Solon wants Senate to probe P50-M SEA Games cauldron"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Aside from pushing for a Senate investigation to look into the construction of the cauldron,\u00a0Drilon said he will also ask COA to undertake a special audit on all the funds spent for the SEA games. \u00a0(File Photo<\/a>: Franklin Drilon\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday questioned the \u201cpropriety\u201d of spending more than PHP50 million in public funds to build the cauldron that\u00a0will be used only once during the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, saying he will ask the Senate to\u00a0investigate\u00a0any possible abuses that may have been committed\u00a0on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa akin, masyadong<\/em>\u00a0extravagant\u00a0ang mahiwaga at pinakamalaki at pinakamahal na kaldero sa buong mundo,\u00a0sa kasaysayan ng ating bansa<\/em>\u00a0– PHP55 million\u00a0para sa kaldero\u00a0<\/em>(For me, the mystical, biggest, and most expensive cauldron in the world and in the history of the country is very extravagant – PHP55 million for a cauldron),\u201d Drilon told reporters after the plenary deliberations on the budget of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).<\/p>\n

\u201cPHP55 million is an extravagance that is so unnecessary and somebody has to answer for this. In fact, after the games in December I will file a resolution asking the Senate to investigate this.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from pushing for a Senate investigation to look into the construction of the cauldron,\u00a0Drilon said he will also ask COA to undertake a special audit on all the funds spent for the SEA games.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate Committee\u00a0on Finance, and sponsor of the BCDA budget, said the budget for the construction of the cauldron was lodged with the Philippine Sports Commission.<\/p>\n

The cauldron, which has a diameter of three meters, cost PHP4.48\u00a0million\u00a0to design, while the the 50-meter high foundation costs PHP13.4 million. Meanwhile, the cost of construction was pegged at PHP32 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what the government is really envisioning was to do a really impressive hosting of the games and showcase the Philippine ingenuity by using Philippine creative designers and performers. I think this is what other Southeast Asian countries have also done when it was their turn to host,\u201d Angara said.<\/p>\n

Drilon, however, said whatever may be said on the building of the cauldron, the budget could have been better used in building classrooms for the youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe total is PHP55.920 million.\u00a0Yung isang silid-paaralan ay<\/em>\u00a0PHP1 million, so 55\u00a0silid-paaralan yung nabuo sana kung hindi dahil dito sa pang-aabuso sa pondo ng pamahalaan. Hindi po nila masagot kung may<\/em>\u00a0bidding\u00a0pa ito, kaya dapat na pag-aralan<\/em>\u00a0(A classroom costs PHP1 million, so 55 classrooms could have been built if not for the abuse of public funds. They could not even answer if there was a bidding, so it needs to be reviewed),\u201d Drilon said.<\/p>\n

He said the Senate and COA inquiries should be done after the games, as the focus right now is to support our athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat that is why I terminated my interpellation, because we have to support our athletes.\u00a0Hindi naman nila kasalanan itong pang-aabuso na nakikita natin\u00a0<\/em>(They have nothing to do with the abuses that we see). \u00a0We need to support them\u00a0so they can compete and bring honor to our country,\u201d he said.\u201cBut it doesn’t mean that we will not question these expenses. As I said, there is time for all of these and the time is after the SEA Games,\u201d Drilon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday questioned the \u201cpropriety\u201d of spending more than PHP50 million in public funds …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":144480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237749,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237748\/revisions\/237749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}