{"id":17338,"date":"2025-11-03T10:44:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/?p=17338"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:44:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T02:44:42","slug":"escudero-infrastracture-projects-must-be-supported-by-feasibility-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/2025\/11\/03\/escudero-infrastracture-projects-must-be-supported-by-feasibility-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"ESCUDERO: INFRASTRACTURE PROJECTS MUST BE SUPPORTED BY FEASIBILITY STUDIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

SENATOR Francis \u201cChiz\u201d Escudero has filed a measure seeking for the institutionalization of budget transparency and accountability safeguards for all infrastructure projects to prevent irregularities, abuse and misuse of government funds. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In his Senate Bill No. 1461 or the proposed Infrastructure Appropriations Integrity Act, the former Senate President wants to ensure that only government infrastructure projects that are technically and financially viable are included in the national budget. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Under SBN 1461, all infrastructure projects will have to incorporate mechanisms such as station numbers, geotagging, geodetic coordinates, and other technology-based methodologies that will allow anyone to locate these at any time. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAng geotagging ay isa sa pinakamahalagang mekanismo para makita natin kung ano ang estado ng isang proyekto\u2014kung may ginagawa ba talaga o naka tengga lang ito habang tuloy-tuloy na nagpapalabas ng pondo ang gobyerno,\u201d Escudero said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bill also states that no government infrastructure project should be included in the national budget and implemented unless it has gone through a thorough feasibility study. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The technical and financial bases for the projects, including the detailed unit price analyses, standard cost of materials, and quantity estimates should be properly and accurately documented for the perusal of all, particularly the public. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis documentation is a requirement and condition sine qua non for inclusion of any infrastructure project in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and the General Appropriations Act (GAA). All proposed projects must be vetted otherwise it should not receive a single centavo in public funds,\u201d Escudero said. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Budget splitting or the division of the appropriations for infrastructure projects in phases will also be prohibited for whatever reason. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSplitting of government contracts has long been prohibited under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Law. This is to prevent the schemes that are intended to circumvent the law and budget policies in order to facilitate corruption,\u201d the former Senate leaader said. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the ongoing reviews and investigations being conducted on the government\u2019s flood control programs, several problems were discovered including substandard construction and materials, overpriced procurement, and in some instances the non-existence of projects or what is more commonly referred to as ghost projects. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Escudero recently wrote to Senate Committee on Finance chairman Senator Sherwin Gatchalian to adopt the transparency and accountability safeguards contained in SBN 1461 as a general provision in the 2026 national budget or as a special provision under specific agency appropriations. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SENATOR Francis “Chiz” Escudero has filed a measure seeking for the institutionalization of budget transparency and accountability safeguards for all infrastructure projects to prevent irregularities,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17340,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338\/revisions\/17340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}