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Pork barrel system is getting worse
Topic Started: Nov 4 2010, 12:35 AM (307 Views)
Benchan
Unregistered

Pork barrel system is getting worse
As I See It
By Neal Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer

WILL THERE be no end to the pork barrel? I had hoped that with the entry of the reform-minded administration of President Noynoy Aquino, the pork barrel system, one of the biggest sources of corruption in the country, would be held in check, if not totally abolished. But instead of reducing the pork allocations, the administration is increasing them.

In addition to the standard P70 million allocated for each congressman, another P50 million in pork was added by the present Congress. There is also the pork allocations tacked on to the P27-billion Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program for the “poorest of the poor” of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Congressmen insisted on this additional condition or else they would not pass the CCT budget. Then there are the congressional insertions, conditionalities inserted in the budget provisions of line departments. In the budgets of the Department of Education or Department of Health, for example, congressmen will get a share “for their projects.”

The Aquino administration has drastically cut the budgets of most departments but has increased those of some departments like the DSWD. The DepEd, for example, has no budget for additional classrooms and textbooks. And yet one of the conditions in the CCT plan is for the beneficiary families to send their children to school or else no cash. That means more children will go to school. What schools will they go to when all the available schools are already overflowing?

But why are the pork allocations of congressmen being increased by another P50 million? Because Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga got another P2.2 billion (that’s billions) in infrastructure pork. The five other Pampanga representatives who got none complained. So they were given P50 million each to keep them quiet. And so that all the other congressmen will also keep quiet, all except the party-list representatives (because they have no districts) were also given an additional P50 million each.

While still President, Arroyo increased the infrastructure budget for her district with P1.678 billion in loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Korean Economic Development and Cooperation Fund. So why does that justify giving the other congressmen an additional P50-million pork each?

Besides, the P1.6 billion for Arroyo’s district is not a grant but a loan. We the taxpayers will have to pay for it. In the same way that half of the P27 billion CCT budget will not come from grants but loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank that Filipino taxpayers will have to pay.

The pork barrel system is the most wasteful and corrupt system in the country. Half of the pork allocations, supposedly for projects of congressmen, are lost—channeled to private pockets. Congressmen claim they do not handle the funds, they only identify the projects. But it is the congressmen who choose the contractors for their projects (the public bidding is a farce) and the contractors kick back a big chunk of the contract price to the congressmen. In the process, all the other bureaucrats involved in the project—the engineers, cashiers, treasurers, clerks, division and department chiefs, even the auditors—are corrupted.

And yet the Constitution does not authorize members of Congress to be duplicates of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) or the DepEd or the DOH. The Constitution says the duty of Congress is to enact laws, not to make roads, bridges and schools (we have the executive departments to do those things).

Congressmen say that without the pork, their projects in their districts would not be implemented. False.

There are the regional, provincial, city and municipal development councils that discuss and plan development projects in their respective jurisdictions. Congressmen are members of these councils. They can push their projects in these councils.

These development councils were set up precisely to coordinate and avoid duplication of projects and thus prevent waste of public funds. But congressmen still insist on their personal pork allocations. The reasons are obvious.
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Edited by Cory, Apr 29 2014, 09:02 PM.