Liberals want pork barrel perks spread among civil society allies

A BILL backed by the Liberal Party has been filed to “democratize the power of the purse” by giving civil society groups equal footing with lawmakers in crafting the national budget.

The plenary debates on the bill, filed by House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, have begun in time for the civil society-led People Power celebrations to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the toppling of the Marcos dictatorship.

House Bill 3773 seeks to grant civil society the right to take part in the budget deliberations at both the national and local levels, Tañada said, noting that only Congress had the exclusive power over the purse now.

He said the bill would provide for a process of accreditation through which chosen representatives will be invited as resource persons during budget hearings.

“There, civil society can present their own findings and experiences with how funded programs work,” Tañada said.

“They will also have the right to make their own proposals, not just for funding allocations in general, but for specific projects as well. As a corollary to these general powers, they will have access to all data pertinent to the budget.”

Tañada would not say how much pork barrel would be allocated to the projects identified by the civil society groups.

“What is important is that the people participate and know where their money is going,” he told the Manila Standard.

“Of course, they do not have a vote. The bill is one way to hold our leaders accountable for how they use the people’s money.”

Congressmen have pork barrel allocations of P70 million each annually, and the senators P200 million each. Those are on top of the P50 million that each lawmaker would get for their projects from the Public Works Department and P25 million from the road users’ tax.

Party list members are excluded from such allocations.

“Access to timely and accurate data is crucial for their informed and meaningful participation,” Tañada said.

“I think civil society is in a unique position to assess the performance of publicly funded programs. They specialize in each of their chosen areas of advocacy. They have the technical expertise of scientists and the dogged patience of academics.” Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today