Purisima issues ‘gag order’ on finance officials

MANILA, Philippines – Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima has issued a “gag order” on the department’s officials, forbidding them to be interviewed by journalists on issues outside their assigned tasks.

In a July 19 memorandum to all the undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and directors of the department, as well as members of the media covering the Finance beat, Purisma stressed that officials should not “comment on issues that go beyond their scope of authority” to ensure that “the Department of Finance’s policy pronouncements are clearly communicated to the public.”

Below is a copy of the memo:

The day before the memorandum was issued, Beltran was quoted in a news story about the possible economic contribution of the infrastructure projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme of the Aquino government.

Beltran said that if the government managed to bid out and implement all the big-ticket infrastructure projects under the PPP initiative as scheduled, the Philippine economy can grow by an additional 2% each year.  

Beltran used to be in-charge of Domestic Finance group, which oversees financial and economic impact of infrastructure projects, including those under the PPP scheme.

Most of these roads, rail, and airport projects have been delayed.

In 2010, the Aquino government has trumpeted the PPP scheme as the centerpiece of its strategy to boost public and private investments, which in turn would help the economy grow faster.

So far, only one of the smallest projects in the list — the P4 billion Daang Hari-SLEx road in southern Manila — has been successfully auctioned off.

In its initial list, the Aquino government had at least 10 projects that were supposed to have been auctioned off in 2010.

This year, the bidding for only two projects — the LRT-Cavite Extension rail project and NAIA Expressway road — has been gaining ground. – Rappler.com