http://tribune.net.ph/metro/20100114met4.html
Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has said it is time to upgrade the country’s infrastructure network under a national development plan that will interconnect the main islands through a modern network of bridges or tunnels.
“We are still trapped in the time of Ro-Ros (roll-on-roll off ferries). It is time we seriously consider linking the country through bridges and tunnels between the islands,” Teodoro said at a meeting of bloggers from the group “Blogwatch” in Makati City last Tuesday.
“Hong Kong has it. Malaysia has it. Why should not the Philippines?” Teodoro said in stressing a modern transportation infrastructure.
Teodoro pointed to the spate of maritime accidents involving wooden-hulled passenger vessels that killed scores during the Christmas holidays as proof that public transport in the Philippines is long overdue for an overhaul.
Tunnels or bridges could be built initially to link Bohol and Cebu as well as areas of southern Leyte, Teodoro said.
In his platform of government, Teodoro envisions, among other things, building a modern national road infrastructure and communications network to hasten economic development and strengthen government efforts to fight rural and urban poverty.
In his meeting with “Blogwatch,” Teodoro also affirmed his stand to provide local government units (LGUs) more funds for disaster control and management.
This can be realized by amending the law to allow the LGUs to utilize more than five percent of their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) for that purpose, said Teodoro, former Defense chief and former chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.
Funds for disaster management by the LGUs are pegged at five percent of the IRA, a figure Teodoro considers too small for adequate disaster response and control by the LGUs.
The unprecedented scale of devastation wrought by typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” last year underscored the need to strengthen the LGUs’ disaster-management capability, he said.
“Considering that they are the peoples’ first line of defense or ‘takbuhan’ during calamities, the LGUs should have more so that they can do their jobs efficiently and as quickly as possible,” the Lakas-Kampi- CMD standard-bearer said.
So rapid was the destruction caused by the two typhoons that the emergency funds of almost all LGUs in disaster-stricken areas of Northern and Central Luzon were depleted quickly, Teodoro said.
“This slowed down their response time until they could not provide assistance to their citizens, prompting them to ask the national government for succor,” he said.
A bigger allocation for disaster operations would sustain the LGUs in their rescue and rehabilitation efforts, thus freeing the national government to concentrate its efforts on helping poorer areas affected by disasters, Teodoro added.
He said legislators and local executives need to have a meeting to thresh out the necessary implementing amendment to the IRA Act.
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