The ‘Pork Barrel King’ under siege!

PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz

 If there is one thing that President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III consistently does, it is to blame his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for all the ills and scandals that befall his administration.  And poor Gloria can’t do anything to defend herself from her detention room at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

The latest “blame game” P-Noy played on Gloria was before the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals.  P-Noy told the audience that Gloria was responsible – not him – for the pork barrel scandals, saying that he only inherited the problem from her. 

He claimed Gloria may have spent more than P1 trillion in her efforts to remain in power and that some of this money was possibly being used to destabilize his administration and even ‘sow violence and terror.’  By implicating Gloria in the scandals, he was probably hoping that Gloria would become the lightning rod for all the criticism that would otherwise have been aimed at him.    

In my article, “P-Noy chops pork, keeps the bacon” (August 26, 2013), I wrote: “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!”

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But this was just the tip of the iceberg.  Last September 25, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, in a privilege speech before the Senate, blew the whistle on his peers.  He claimed Malacañang gave “incentives” — or bribes — to 20 senators in the last two years in exchange for their support – and vote – for P-Noy’s legislative agenda.

Jinggoy said that each senator received an extra P50 million in the form of additional pork barrel for their vote to convict former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. But while he admitted that he, too, had received the extra pork, he said that it did not influence how he voted.  

A few days later, in an attempt to neutralize Jinggoy’s exposé, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad disclosed that the releases made to the 20 senators totaling P1.1075 billion came from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), a new pork barrel-like program that was created without congressional authority.  

But instead of pacifying P-Noy’s critics, it opened a Pandora’s box and unleashed a barrage of criticism against P-Noy for what many constitutionalists believe was an illegal diversion of funds from budgeted items to DAP.     

Compounding the allegations of impropriety against P-Noy – who earned the moniker of “Pork Barrel King” -- for his use of DAP, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping further releases of funds from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the President’s Social Fund (PSF).  Also covered in the TRO are releases from the Malampaya Fund. The TRO was in response to three citizens’ petitions that asked the court to declare as unconstitutional the lump sum allocations under the PDAF and the PSF, and the misuse of the Malampaya Fund.

But nothing hurts the Aquino administration more than Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s opinion on the constitutionality of the PDAF.  During the hearing for the oral arguments on the petitions last October 8, he said that the PDAF “on its face is unconstitutional” because the President cannot share the power to utilize public funds with the legislative branch. He said that the power to utilize public funds lies solely with the President; therefore, any power-sharing is unconstitutional. He said that the PDAF is “riddled with unconstitutionality.”   

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Last October 17, former Rep. Augusto Syjuco filed charges of plunder against Senate President Franklin Drilon and DBM Secretary Abad and his wife, Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad.   Syjuco claimed that Drilon used government funds through the DAP to bribe senators to vote for a “guilty” verdict at the impeachment trial of then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The complaint against the Abads stems from the questionable release of P752.5 million of pork barrel allocation to Rep. Henedina Abad.  Syjuco claimed this was 10 times her regular pork barrel allocation for the lone district of Batanes, whose population, based on the 2010 census, was 16,467.  That’s roughly P235,000 for every household of five in Rep. Abad’s district.

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Amidst all these scandals and anomalies, the citizenry has awakened.  Robbed of their treasury – and sovereignty -- by a gang of thieves masquerading as lawmakers, the people are enraged.   Something needs to be done to stop this pillage of the people’s wealth. 

But another people power revolution doesn’t dwell too well with the masses.  The failure of the 1986 and 2001 people power revolutions  -- known as EDSA 1 and EDSA 2, respectively -- to make real change had deterred the people from pursuing EDSA 3.  But what seems to be doable is a “peaceful revolution” where change is truly achieved through a constitutionally legal venue.   Could it be that the 1987 Constitution has outlived its usefulness?   Perhaps it’s time for Charter change.

In Carmen N. Pedrosa’s column, “Former Chief Justice Puno to lead ‘Crowdsourcing a New Constitution’,” she wrote: “By ‘crowdsourcing a new Constitution’ we return sovereignty to the people. That would mean a lot of patience in calibrating what the people say with what constitutional experts think is the right way to frame their desires for good governance. Not just on the issue of PDAF or DAP.” 

But here is the interesting part of her column: “The present illegal government cannot be part of the Crowdsourcing a Constitution Movement. Therefore a transition council with revolutionary powers will have to be organized. It is a formidable task but what is the alternative?”

Heading the Crowdsourcing a New Constitution Movement is former Chief Justice Reynato Puno.  Reputedly known for his incorruptibility, CJ Puno has his work cut out.  The task is daunting to say the least but the challenges are surmountable.

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It’s too bad that the “Pork Barrel King” is now under siege.  Had he reined in his corrupt underlings and political allies, this wouldn’t be happening.  But it’s never too late.  If P-Noy would give up his P1.3-trillion discretionary fund, which is technically pork barrel, he wouldn’t find himself in this untenable position.   

At the end of the day, if P-Noy would only heed the call to end the pork barrel system including his controversial discretionary fund, his fabled mantra of “daang matuwid” (straight path) would be more meaningful.  But with all the scandals and anomalies plaguing his administration today, nothing seems to be more crooked than his “daang matuwid.”

Mr. President, it’s time to wake up and listen to the people, your “boss.” (PerryDiaz@gmail.com)