PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s year-long national calamity declaration will fast-track rehabilitation efforts across typhoon-ravaged regions in the country, but it may also carry corruption risks, analysts said on Monday.
While the declaration may accelerate fund disbursement and disaster recovery, they warned that relaxed bidding rules could expose an already corruption-prone procurement process to further abuse.
“Calamity declarations usually have two-fold effects — make available the resources and funds over and above that are regularly appropriated, and ensure that their processing is easier and faster than normal,” Nigel Paul C. Villarete, a senior adviser at technical advisory group Libra Konsult, Inc., said in a Viber message.
Mr. Marcos last week placed the Philippines under a year-long state of national calamity after two successive typhoons that left hundreds dead swept across the country. Damage valuation is still underway, but losses to infrastructure and agriculture often run into hundreds of millions, if not billions, of pesos.