Militant lawmakers give up P1.5-B ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines – Seven militant party-list representatives have decided to give up nearly P1.5 billion in pork barrel funds available to them for the next three years.

They made the decision as other members of the House of Representatives called for retaining the congressional pork barrel.

“We will not access our PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) during the 16th Congress,” one of the seven, Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna, said yesterday in a television interview.

PDAF is the official name of the congressional pork barrel. It allocates P200 million a year for each senator and P70 million for each House member.

Zarate and his colleagues thus have a combined P490 million for one year and P1.470 billion for the three-year life of the present Congress up to the end of President Aquino’s term on June 30, 2016.

“We can’t say we’ll just institute reforms (in the use of the PDAF). The challenge for all of us in Congress is to abolish the pork barrel,” Zarate said.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said the proposed introduction of reforms in the use of the pork barrel amid the latest allegations of irregularities would no longer work.

“The guidelines are supposed to be strict, and yet we have this newest scam in which a syndicate supposedly pocketed P10 billion of pork barrel funds,” he said.

He said irregularities in the use of PDAF allocations could be the largest, longest-running corruption racket in the nation’s history.

Besides Zarate and Tinio, their colleagues who are not touching their PDAF are Luz Ilagan and Emmi de Jesus of Gabriela, Fernando Hicap of Anakpawis, Terry Ridon of Kabataan, and Neri Colmenares also of Bayan Muna.

According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) website, militant party-list groups had been availing themselves of their PDAF allocations from 2009 up to this year.

Before last May’s elections, the DBM released P83.350 million to Bayan Muna and P20 million to Anakpawis, though the amounts represented the two groups’ PDAF balances for previous years.

Zarate, Hicap and Ridon are first-time House members and thus have not tasted “pork.”

The seven militant party-list representatives, who belong to the House minority, have filed a bill to scrap the PDAF.

In the Senate, the principal proponent of scrapping the pork barrel is Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who, the DBM website shows, has received a total of P450 million in PDAF from 2009 up to June this year.

Zarate and his colleagues also criticized President Aquino for defending the congressional pork barrel amid reports of irregularities, saying such defense is not consistent with the Chief Executive’s daang matuwid advocacy.

They said it is not true that the President cannot scrap the PDAF, as Aquino’s spokespersons claim.

The President can choose to delete the PDAF in his budget proposal and to reject it if Congress returns it, Tinio said.

In calling for retaining the pork barrel, several House members supported the suggestion of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. for PDAF critics to just give up their allocations.

“I am for the retention of PDAF because it is a huge help to the needy. It pays for scholarships of poor students, hospital bills of indigent patients, burial expenses of paupers, among others. Of course, it has been abused and corrupted by some. But the remedy is not to eliminate the fund but to tighten its disbursement,” Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao said.

His Isabela colleague Rodito Albano said: “The PDAF is for our constituents. They are entitled to it. Those who do not want it can give their share to us. The issue is not about its existence but its misuse.”

Valenzuela City Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo said those who are against the pork barrel should not deprive other districts of their allocation and should just heed the Speaker’s suggestion.

“We fully support the Speaker’s position that those who call for the PDAF abolition should not request release of their allocation to maintain their integrity,” he said.

The call for PDAF abolition came on the heels of reports that some politicians were misusing their allocation in cahoots with businesswoman Janet Napoles and bogus non-government organizations (NGOs). The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is looking into the irregularity.

Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, head of the so-called independent bloc, said they would scrutinize the President’s own pork barrel funds, estimated at P200 billion. “The special purpose funds or lump sum funds are going unscrutinized and without any accountability,” Romualdez told reporters.

“While the controversy on pork barrel is a substantial amount, we are just talking here of about one percent of our budget next year. It is quite ironic that larger and bigger funds have been left unchecked and away from transparency and accountability,” he said.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, for his part, said the chamber would wait for the NBI and other agencies to finish their probe before deciding whether to launch its own investigation.

This developed as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima directed the Bureau of Immigration to be “on the lookout or alert for” Napoles and her brother Reynald Lim “should either or both of them pass through the immigration counters in any of our international airports and/or seaports, whether on their way in or out of the country.”

Meanwhile, another NGO is being asked to account for P17.7 million in pork barrel funds which was supposed to have been used for livelihood programs and stipends for scholars of eight barangays in Antipolo City two years ago.

The money was sourced from the PDAF of Rep. Roberto Puno in 2011. Puno is now deputy House speaker.

State auditors, in a 2012 report released last week, said Kaunlaran at Kagalingan in Antipolo Inc. (KAKA), has yet to show enough documentary proof of “validity, regularity and occurrence.”

At the Palace, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda clarified that Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares had never asked lawmakers to submit their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) as the investigation into the alleged misuse of PDAF had just started.

“The investigation by the BIR is very confidential. By nature, this is very confidential, so we are not privy as to what Commissioner Kim Henares will do as regards the investigation,” he said. –-Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) with Edu Punay, Michael Punongbayan, Paolo Romero, Marvin Sy, Evelyn Macairan, Aurea Calica