P3.9B ARMM fund missing, Jaime Pilapil,reporter,Manila Times

WHERE is the money? It looks like the P3.9-billion fund for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has gone missing after Malacañang said on Thursday that it had no idea if the fund exists. The Palace also denied that President Benigno Aquino 3rd stopped the release of the money so he could give it as a "welcome gift" to the officer-in-charge of the Muslim autonomous region once that person is installed. "As far as Malacañang is concerned, there is no such order given by the President," Malacañang spokesman Edwin Lacierda said. According to him, even Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad has no knowledge of the money. "I talked to Secretary Abad about that. In fact, he was surprised. What is that P3.9 billion? He is not aware of that," the spokesman said. "There's no information that we received (the money). I think the article has highly reliable sources, but I confirmed with Secretary Abad and there's no truth to that," he added. A source from the ARMM earlier claimed that the fund should have been used for education and health assistance for the region. The insider added that the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) approved the release of the money for several education and environment projects. The package will be implemented under the Australian Assistance for International Development (AusAID) Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM). The foreign donor would shell out P3.57 billion, while the Philippine government would put up the P357-million balance. Ali Macabalang of the ARMM Bureau of Public Information has confirmed the existence of the AusAID fund. He said that it was ARMM Acting Gov. Ansaruddin Adiong who lobbied for the fund before AusAID officials. A press release issued by the Philippine Information Agency on Sept. 7, 2011 said that the Department of Education (DepEd) would soon implement the P3.927-billion education and environment projects in the ARMM. The Bureau of Public Information (BPI) of the ARMM said that the Cabinet Committee of NEDA had approved projects on education and environment. According to the press release, NEDA approved the Basic Education Assistance for Muslim Mindanao, which aims to improve basic education performance in the autonomous region by addressing fundamental issues like low levels of intake, participation, completion rates and learning achievement for both elementary and high school education.