8/12/2019 Analysis-Abolition of Pork Barrel a Sham

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Analysis

Abolition of congressional pork a sham

ByAmando DoronilaPhilippine Daily Inquirer

2:14 am | Monday, September 30th, 2013

30 1021 523

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The House of Representatives eliminated on Saturday the controversial P25.4-billionPriority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from the P2.268-trillion national budgetfor next year in a token and farcical response to widespread public clamor for the total

abolition of the corruption-ridden pork barrel system.

But while the incision cut deeply into the bone of the congressional power of the purse,it fell far short of the public demand.

The scalpel of the Aquino administration-controlled House hardly touched the P450-billion presidential Special Purpose Fund (SPF), which opposition legislators criticizedas Mr. Aquinos own pork barrel during the plenary debate on the 2014 budget bill.

The debate ended with the passing on second reading of the General Appropriations Actof 2014 early Saturday morning.

In this budgetary cut, Congress came off as the loser and as the shock absorber of publicoutrage over the diversion of P10 billion of the PDAF, intended for public worksprojects, to a group of dummy nongovernment organizations (NGOs) controlled bybusinesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, in collusion with certain senators andcongressmen.

How the House became the convenient lightning rod of this pork barrel fund farce isbest illustrated by the redistribution of the political patronage largesse in the next.

This article will argue that in this budgetary redistribution, Congress, which initiates

appropriation legislation, cut its own arms by allocating to the SPF amounts far largerthan the scrapped congressional pork barrel.

From the redistribution, to be examined in the following text, it will be shown that theelimination of the PDAF in the 2014 budget is far from a reform measure as it is beingmade out to be.

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8/12/2019 Analysis-Abolition of Pork Barrel a Sham

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Under the new budget, with the PDAF eliminated, the President comes off morepowerful in the control of patronage funds in the budget.

To begin with, it was pointed out in the plenary debates that the P25.2-billion PDAFrepresents only about 5.5 percent of the Presidents SPF. At almost P450 billion, the SPF

is about a fifth of the entire national budget.

Parody

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. announced before the session adjourned on Saturday,The House has moved to abolish the age-old PDAF not only as a response to the publicoutcry but as a first step toward arresting any possible abuse of the same, even as wecontinue to explore best possible alternative means to still afford our people with thesocial services and other needs they require.

Replay Ad

Under the redistribution, the President retains in the next budget his P1-trillion porkbarrel, without clear-cut guidelines and details on what and how it will be spent,according to opposition members in the House.

Unless the purpose is revealed, we dont know where the money goes, Leyte Rep.Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said.

The minority group in the House said it could not vote for the General AppropriationsAct, which is just a parody of the power of the purse of Congress. Romualdez called forthe abolition of the entire SPF.

The P25.2-billion PDAF originally proposed as congressional pork barrel will now go toeducation, healthcare, employment, infrastructure and assistance to persons in crisis.

The biggest slicethat is, P9.954 billionwill go to the Department of Public Works andHighways for the implementation of infrastructure projects to be recommended bycongressmen following a new menu. The new guidelines limit such projects to localroads and bridges, classrooms, multipurpose buildings and water supplies.

Representatives, except those from party-list groups, can propose projects only withintheir respective districts. Congressmen are asked to recommend up to five infrastructureprojects, each with a budget.

Sole fund dispenser

The scrapping of the PDAF stripped senators and congressmen of the power todetermine whom to assign their pork barrel allocations for implementation. They arenow barred from endorsing their allocations to NGOs, which had earlier been banned bythe President from acting as intermediaries in implementing government projects.

8/12/2019 Analysis-Abolition of Pork Barrel a Sham

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In actual practice, the President is empowered to realign, disapprove or withhold hugeamounts, it was pointed by one legislator who said it would just be the President whowould decidewhere all the money would go.

The elimination of the PDAF resulted in the near monopoly of the President of funds for

political patronage following the refusal of Congress to touch his sacrosanct andenormous pork barrel. It has significantly tipped the balance of power from thelegislative branch to the executive.

The abuse by legislators of their pork barrel allocations in the P10-billion Napoles scamhas undermined the legislatures legitimacy in handling public funds. It has also pavedthe way for the enhanced domination of Congress by the executive branch riding thecrest of public outrage over the pork barrel system.

What is left of the discredited congressional pork barrel system is that it has beencaptured and replaced by a single and bigger pork barrel dispenser, also bankrolled bypublic funds.

This is not what the protest movement in the streets wanted when it called for theabolition of the pork barrel. We are still saddled by an onerous yoke.

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