Sen. Robinhood Padilla has pushed for a bigger budget for the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) to ensure lasting peace in the southern Philippines.
The senator made the call on Wednesday at the hearing of the Senate finance subcommittee for the budget of the MinDA for 2023.
“Mindanao is close to us. We have seen the proposed budgets for Luzon and Visayas, and they are considerable,” Padilla said in Filipino.
“But for Mindanao, the budget is quite small. This is very sad,” he said after learning of a budget cut for MinDA for 2023.
“As you said, peace is very important. And we know the key to peace is to address the cause of chaos by ensuring equitable development,” he told MinDA chairman Ma. Belen Acosta.
Padilla said that while he and finance subcommittee chairman Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa will find ways to increase MinDA’s budget, the agency’s officials must also make representations with the Department of Budget and Management.
For 2023, the National Expenditure Program allotted P158.958 million for MinDA — P197.27 million lower than the agency’s budget of P38.312 million for 2022.
Because of this, some P306.642 million in projects may go unfunded, including Mindanao digital innovations program, P18.98 million; Expanded Mindanao economic recovery program, P20.977 million; Mindanao River Basins Food-Energy-Water nexus program, P12.390 million; and Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Heritage Preservation and Development Support Program, P10 million.
Meanwhile, Padilla voiced hopes that there will finally be enough funds and local government support for the airport project in Mlang, Cotabato. He said it is a waste that the project has been in limbo for more than 15 years.
“It would be a waste. The airport would have been good for Central Mindanao. Progressive places have airports and seaports. Without these, the last 15 years would have been for nothing,” he said.