Scrapping the pork barrel

September 1, 2013
Thousands of Filipinos held their first biggest protest under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino Jr. on Monday, August 26, at the Luneta in Manila. The rallies or mass actions were held simultaneously in key cities in the Philippines, the United States, Asia and Europe. The object of the mass actions was the scam involving billions of pesos of government funds lumped as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of Senators and Congressmen which the rallyists want abolished. In the present government budget, the lawmakers’ pork barrel amounts to P27 billion, with each congressman getting P70 million and each senator P200 million every year. The protest was widened to include massive pork barrel of the President and the Executive Department amounting to P1.2 trillion of the P2.7 trillion proposed national government budget for 2014.
The rallies was triggered by a pork barrel scam involving more than P10 billion which was confirmed in Commission on Audit (COA) findings on the 2007 to 2009 expenditure of the pork barrel. The COA report found that many senators and congressmen got more than what was due them by the millions of pesos. What is worse, millions of pesos, if not bilions, were channelled to non-government organizations, some of them foundations established and supported by the senators and congressmen themselves. The practice allowed some people like Janet Lim Napoles to kite the money to their own pockets. Since the COA audit covered only the Arroyo administration, many leaders like Vice President Jejomar Binay to complete the investigation to cover also the present administration for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, so the Aquino government would not be accused of using the audit merely to harass political foes.
Heeding the clamor of the people for reforms, President Aquino announced that the pork barrel will be abolished or re-aligned through line items identifying the projects to be funded and that safeguards and transparency will be ensured in the releases of funds.
Ironically, the pork barrel practice was introduced in the Philippines by the Americans which had it for centuries as the Filipinos copied the American system of government. It maybe time to completely do away with the practice so that poverty among Filipinos will be reduced, more employment opportunities will be created and that better and bigger projects and services that will redound to the benefit of the people, especially the masses. After all, it is the people’s money – the money they paid in taxes – that is involved here.