PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz
Perry Diaz
Last August 23, 2013, three days before the
“Million People March” anti-pork barrel rally at the Rizal Park (Luneta),
President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III, in a seemingly pre-emptive move,
announced that its time to abolish the PDAF, the acronym for Priority
Development Assistance Fund, or more commonly known as “pork
barrel.” The rally, which was initiated by netizens,
demanded for the abolition of pork barrel. A few individuals using
Facebook barely two weeks ago, posted a call for “Martsa sa Luneta” on
August 26, 2013.
The
attendance, which varies from 65,000 to 100,000, manifested the seriousness of
the pork barrel scandal. The rally could be the “tipping point” of the
people’s fight against pork barrel… and corruption. Many felt that P-Noy
reneged on his promise of “Walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”
Never
before since the EDSA people power revolution of 1986 has an issue galvanized
the people to rise in protest. The social media has taken the place
of EDSA as the venue for people to vent their anger against corruption and
incompetence in government. Just imagine how fast “news” travels
around. It’s faster than sound and light; everybody is just a “click”
away.
It
did not then come as a surprise when P-Noy called for an unscheduled press
conference to announce that pork barrel has to go. He told reporters that
he was not “threatened” by the “Martsa sa Luneta. ” “Why should we be
worried? We’ve gained more allies in fixing the system. Thanks a lot to them,”
he said. He blamed the administration of former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo for all the anomalies the Commission on Audit (COA) found in a
three-year study on pork barrel corruption.
***
P-Noy should stop
blaming Gloria for all his problems. While it may be true that the pork
barrel scam ran by Janet Lim-Napoles started during Gloria’s time, it did not
end when P-Noy ascended to the presidency. In fact, the COA report shows
that the pork barrel scam increased in volume and more lawmakers – 12 senators
and 180 congressmen – were involved in raiding the PDAF funds and splitting the
funds 70-30 with the lawmakers getting the lion’s share.
But
blaming Gloria is not going to work this time around. Department of
Budget and Management (DBM) records show that in 2010, Gloria’s last budget
year, PDAF was P6.9 billion. The following year, with P-Noy having full
control of the budget, he could have pared down the PDAF allocations. But
instead, PDAF allocations took a quantum leap. In 2011, PDAF more than
tripled from 2010’s P6.9 billion to P22.3 billion! In 2012, it was
increased to P24.89 billion. It was for the same amount in
2013. But in 2014, PDAF will increase to a record P27 billion!
***
Recently, it was
reported in the news that Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares and former Treasurer
Leonor Briones “want the executive department to explain the lump sum items in
the national budget which they believe are the President’s version of
lawmakers’ pork barrel funds.” Briones estimates the lump sums under the
President's discretion to be around P1 trillion.” She explained that any
“lump sum” fund that is under the discretion of an official like a senator,
congressman or president, is considered a “pork barrel.” She defined
“pork barrel” as an allocation with no details on how and where it will be
spent.” She also said that the power of the President to redirect or
realign funds in the budget would make the whole national budget his “pork,”
which he can use any which way he wants.
The following is a breakdown of the presidential pork by category:
Special
purpose funds - P310.1 billion, which includes big items such as PDAF
(P25.42 billion), Budgetary support to state-owned corporations (P45.7), and
miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (P80.7 billion).
Unprogrammed funds – P139.9 billion,
which include Support to foreign-assisted projects (P16.124
billion), Support for infra projects and social programs (P56.349 billion), AFP
modernization program (P10.349 billion), Debt management program (P10.894
billion), and Risk management program (P30 billion).
Under the President’s control - Budget
for school buildings (P200 billion).
PAGCOR and PCSO – They
contribute to the social fund. PAGCOR will contribute about P2 billion to the
President's social fund this year.
Malampaya funds – More than P100
billion will be at the disposal of P-Noy this year.
Miscellaneous – Debt servicing
(P352 billion) and Internal Revenue allotment (P341.5 billion) “allegedly”
under the President's control.
If
you add the miscellaneous items to the P1 trillion that Briones estimated, then
you are looking at a whopping P1.45-trillion presidential pork! That would
represent 55.7% of the P2.6-trillion budget for 2014.
***
Budget Secretary
Florencio “Butch” Abad disputes Colmenares and Briones’
observations. He claimed that P-Noy “has been prudent in spending.”
If so, how much is left over and where did it go? Perhaps P-Noy should
allow COA to audit his P1-trillion pork to the satisfaction of his “bosses,”
the people. The lack of transparency and accountability makes the people
suspicious of abuses like the pork barrel scam that Janet Lim-Napoles allegedly
pulled off, which defrauded the government of P10 billion from lawmakers’ PDAF
in the past 10 years.
***
While P-Noy said that
the PDAF would be abolished, he instructed the Senate and the House of
Representatives to “find a new way to deal with the needs of constituents ‘in a
manner that is transparent, methodical and rational’ and ‘not susceptible’ to
abuse.” In other words, pork barrel is here to stay; only the name would
change.
In
my article, “For the love of pork…”
(August 23, 2013), I wrote: “It is interesting to note that the PDAF can
trace its provenance to 1989 when P-Noy’s mother Cory created the Mindanao
Development Fund (MDF) and the Visayas Development Fund (VDF), with and
appropriation of P480 million and P240 million, respectively. In 1990, the MDF
and VDF were combined and expanded nationwide as the Countrywide Development
Fund (CDF) with an appropriation of P2.3 billion. In 2000, the CDF was
renamed PDAF.”
It
seems that we are once again going through the rigmarole of renaming “pork
barrel” into something else. But like a lot of people are saying, “Pork
by any other name is still pork.” What is it this time? As someone
suggested, why not BADAF, which is an acronym for “Benigno Aquino Development
Assistance Fund” or BACON, which stands for “Budgetary Allocation for
Collaborative Outreach Nationwide”?
I
believe it is time to get rid of PDAF, which is the number one cause of
corruption. While P-Noy might be “prudent” in spending his pork barrel
funds as Abad said, who knows what the next president would do? He
or she might not be as “prudent” as P-Noy.
For
P-Noy to chop the P27-billion pork but keep the P1-trillion bacon is not only
unfair, it is unconscionable. P-Noy is now at the crossroads of his
political life; he can follow a “daang matuwid” (straight path) or take a
detour to a road that would lead him to ignominy.
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