Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr. on Monday asked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release his Priority Development and Assistance Fund (PDAF) that he has allotted for the completion of the Cagayan De Oro Convention Center.

Pimentel noted that his PDAF, more popularly known as “pork barrel,” remains unreleased, thus delaying the project’s completion.

The opposition senator lamented that while lawmakers close to the administration receive their annual support to fund infrastructure projects in their districts, the Arroyo government is withholding the PDAF of its critics.

He also said the government has also yet to release the senatorial initiative of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) fund under the General Appropriations Act of 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2008.

“I have repeatedly called the attention of the DBM since 2005 to 2007 for the release of the amounts allotted for the CDO Convention Center from my PDAF and the DPWH fund amounting to P240, 650,000,” Pimentel said in his letter to Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya.

The construction, he said, started on June 30, 2001 with the original target date of completion on Aug. 2003 and with a contract price of more than P349 million. Due to various delays, the project cost has now been estimated by the DPWH at P758, 035,998.12 as of Aug. 2009.

“To date, I have not received a single satisfactory explanation for the withholding of the release of the funds for the completion of the CDO Convention Center,” he said.

Pimentel said he has sought President Arroyo’s intercession in a letter to Malacañang dated May 15, 2009 but to no avail. To date, only 45 percent of the project has been completed.

He said the center is envisioned to be a 7,700-seat trade and convention center, ideal for national, international and trade exhibits to showcase the potential for socio-cultural and economic development in the South, not to mention its impact on tourism by making Northern Mindanao a major international convention destination.

“As a senator from Mindanao, I am asking for the justification of the DBM’s refusal to release the allocation in the GAA 2006-2009, as well as the timetable for the release of the funds needed to complete the project,” he said.