Local government officials should have at least a concrete master plan on their respective development and infrastructure projects before they will get the share of their funds from the national government, Partido ng Manggagawa at Magsasaka (PMM) standard-bearer Hermogenes "Jun" Ebdane Jr. said Saturday.

When elected president, Ebdane said he will see to it that the budget intended for local government officials would only be released if they have already a blueprint on what they are going to do on their development projects.

He explained that the problem with some local government officials, particularly the Regional Development Councils (RDCs), is that they put new projects in the drawing board instead of completing those started by their predecessors.

“Ang isa pang mapansin ninyo dito ay hindi pa tapos ang isang proyekto ay may bago na naman. Tapos kapag inabutan ng susunod na administration, wala na,” he said in a recent interview with a cable channel.

“Ang sabi ko nga doon sa mga taga Public Works noong bago ako umalis, kung ako mag-Presidente ay bibigyan ko lang ng pondo iyong may mga plano . Kung walang plano, wala muna,” Ebdane added.

Talking about his solution to the problem, the former Public Works official suggested that these projects should be “interconnected” with existing infrastructure and there should “some sort of control” on the budget to be used in order to avert overspending of government funds.

“Maraming projects na hindi natatapos. Hindi pa natatapos ang isa ay pasok na ng pasok. Kasi kung minsan, wala ng pera pipilitin pa eh. Wala ng pera ang gobyerno meron pang manghihingi dahil they are influential group so mapipilitan kang pagbigyan which leads to overspending,” he said.

As part of his platform, Ebdane said one of his major priorities is to build road networks that will connect communities. “If you have this new road in the countryside it can also develop new communities.”

Ebdane recalled during the time of former President Marcos when there was a master plan for development which was used by the next administrations.

“Maraming plano done during the time of President Marcos. In fact karamihan ng mga ginagawa nating ngayon ay rebirth lang noong mga ginawa niya tulad C1, C2, C3, C4, C6. That’s Marcos plan na ini-implement ngayon,” Ebdane pointed out.

But Ebdane admitted that other areas in countryside still lack development in terms of infrastructure, mentioning Mindanao, for instance, which experienced the peak of construction boom in the 50s.

“Kulang na kulang tayo. In fact, nag-start and maraming construction talaga noong 70s, 80s. If you go back further, it all started kagaya sa Mindanao noong 50s lang,” he said.