By DANNY O.SAGUN

LINGAYEN – Former Gov. Victor E. Agbayani Thursday strongly took exception to allegations his administration was wracked with irregularities.

Agbayani, now second district congressman, said that the P300 million loan from Land Bank of the Philippines was spent according to the strict policies set by the bank.

Some P266 million was spent for the construction of four major bridges, 17 roadlines and irrigation and drainage systems as well as repair and maintenance of government hospital, he said.

The former governor was reacting to the findings by the new administration of Gov. Amado T. Espino that P266 million was paid to contractors just within eight months before the May 14 elections, from September last year to June 28 this year. Land Bank granted the loan in May last year.

Espino last Monday told the sangguniang panlalawigan that P52.4 million was released for the month of June alone with the last check amounting to P11.9 million released a mere one-a-half days before he assumed office.

Agbayani said that his administration strictly adhered to the policies on project implementation and fund disbursements set by the bank.

He also said that he did not touch the province’s budget for the third and fourth quarters in deference to the new administration even as he asked his successor to avoid vindictive politics but rather work toward reconciliation. His wife, Jamie, lost to Espino in the last elections.

In his message to the sanggunian, Espino noted that irregular disbursements or mismanagement of funds have been discovered from financial reports he had received from the various departments.

The new provincial executive spent his first two weeks in office meeting department heads. He has met so far 14 chiefs of offices as of last Monday.

In those briefings, he observed that some offices have not been performing the specific roles assigned to them. The social welfare office, for one, he said, was not doing its most basic function of keeping records of indigent families in the province.

The provincial population office, according to him, likewise has been performing such extraneous functions as operating a day care center within the Capitol compound and giving out loans for small business ventures which amounted to P18 million as of December 30 last year.
He said that no report of collections from January 1 to June 30 was submitted to him.

The governor, it was noted, spent sometime ‘grilling’ provincial engineer Divinia de Leon on the province’s infrastructure projects particularly the beautification of the kilometer-long Maramba boulevard and the Capitol grounds. Some P12 million was spent for the concrete works aside from the P3.7 million spent for the
landscaping.

He also chided de Leon for the slow repair works at the Lingayen Resort Hotel.

Espino also said the provincial health office has been providing medical, dental and laboratory services within its office, which services, he said, can be better handled by the Lingayen community hospital or the town’s rural unit.

The PHO “should focus on managing/coordinating the province-wide health services and tackling attendant problems,” he stressed.

At the provincial hospital in barangay Bolingit in San Carlos City, he said that charity ward patients had no bed sheets and the ward is poorly ventilated.

He said he has ordered health officials to discontinue “health missions,” which function, he pointed out, can be adequately attended to by existing health facilities in the province. His close rival in the elections, who is a physician, spearheaded health missions during the administration of her husband.

The environment and natural resources office (ENRO), the governor noted, collected P7.6 million last year. But with 40 percent going to the barangays and 30 percent to the towns concerned as their share, the net income was only P2.3 million. ENRO however spent P5.6 million for the salary of its personnel and operational expenses, or a deficit of P3.3 million.

“Clearly, from these discovered problems, certain provincial offices do not understand and perform their assigned roles in the context of a provincial government responsible for coordinating, integrating and strengthening province-wide programs and activities responsive to the needs of the people,” he observed. (