Lawmaker says 2015 budget includes P27-B ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines - The proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget includes more than P27 billion in pork barrel funds for lawmakers, a party-list congressman said yesterday.

Rep. Antonio Tinio of Alliance of Concerned Teachers said he has studied the budget proposal and discovered P27.4 billion in “pork” embedded in the funding for six agencies.

He said the biggest pork barrel allocation of P18.4 billion for “local infrastructure” will go to the Department Public Works and Highways (DPWH), followed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development for “comprehensive and integrated delivery of social services” with P3.6 billion.

He said the Commission on Higher Education and unnamed state universities and colleges will receive P2.5 billion for their “Tulong Dunong Program,” P1.8 billion will go to the Department of Health for “assistance to indigent patients,” P611.7 million to the Department of Labor and Employment for internship and assistance to disadvantaged workers, and P543.4 million to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority for “special training for employment program.”

“Unconstitutional pork for legislators is even heftier under the 2015 budget. The total hidden pork increased by nearly 32 percent from the P20.8 billion in the 2014 budget, while each solon’s share shot up from P71.6 million to P94.4 million,” he added.

Tinio noted that while pork barrel funds decreased for five agencies, the allocation for the DPWH went up by more than 100 percent, from P7.3 billion this year to P18.4 billion next year.

“This setup now makes hard (infrastructure) projects have a two-thirds share in a solon’s total hidden pork. The old PDAF system allocated P40 million for hard projects out of the P70-million allocation per solon,” he said.

PDAF, which stands for Priority Development Assistance Fund, was the name of the P25-billion congressional pork barrel before the Supreme Court (SC) struck it down as unconstitutional in November last year.

Under the SC ruling, lawmakers cannot assign for themselves a lump sum fund and provide the details of their projects and meddle in project implementation after the enactment of the annual budget.

However, they are not prohibited from including such projects, together with their funding, in the budget while the latter is pending in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has said lawmakers have submitted their project proposals to concerned agencies for inclusion in the budget.

The SC decision on the PDAF does not prohibit that, he said.

Toward the latter part of last year, after the SC ruled on the PDAF issue, congressmen and senators realigned P21 billion of their PDAF to several agencies.

Tinio has accused his colleagues of meddling with the use of their realigned funds by recommending who should be given educational and medical assistance.