Admit pork still exists in budget, government urged

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang should admit pork barrel-type funds still exist in the national budget, both this year’s and 2016, especially if none of these are being used for illegal purposes, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said yesterday.

Osmeña scoffed at Malacañang’s definition of “pork,” which basically relates to post-enactment intervention by legislators in the General Appropriations Act.

“They have the narrowest definition of pork so they can say with a clear conscience, no, there is no pork in there,” he said.

Osmeña, however, pointed out the universal definition of pork – the identification of programs and projects by legislators that would benefit their respective districts or constituencies.

“Of course it is our job to legislate and we can add new items in the budget that the entire body feels must be added. But in this case, it is specifically for my district only,” he said.

Osmeña said the pork barrel fund system is not illegal and is in fact, done all over the world.

He said Malacañang should have no reason to deny the presence of pork in the budget if it has nothing to hide and could explain all the details.

“Every budget has pork. From now, long until we’re dead and our great grandchildren, there will be pork. Otherwise we’ll never get anything through Congress,” he said.

“It is legal pork. What is illegal is stealing. That is when fraud or plunder takes place. It was the stealing of the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) that was illegal. It was not the PDAF, that’s not illegal,” he added.

Osmeña said all legislators are still given specific amounts that they could allocate for their pet programs or projects before the proposed national budgets are tackled.

By coming out with the details of these appropriations, Osmeña said the public would be able to determine if these were for valid purposes or “it was done to please a congressman or congressmen or a senator or senators.”

Osmeña said he would leave the identification of the questionable allocations this year and the proposed 2016 national budget to the militants in the House of Representatives and former senator Panfilo Lacson because he does not have the time to go over the measure.

“Let them do the work,” he said.

Lacson earlier disclosed the government has about P500 billion or more in unspent funds, mostly or partly attributing such to underspending.

Lacson also revealed irregularities within the financial report of some government agencies.

Militant lawmakers in the House revealed the supposed congressional insertions in various agencies – like the departments of national defense, energy and social welfare and development – but it bore “no details” in the proposed budget submitted to Congress.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said there is around P145 billion in pork barrel funds in next year’s budget.

This can be broken down from the P97.4-billion lump sum in the special purpose fund – which is discretionary in nature and therefore vulnerable to abuse by lawmakers – and another P50 billion was spread among various departments in the bureaucracy, he said.

Lacson on Wednesday said he had sufficient evidence  to prove the Aquino administration has revived the pork barrel in the 2015 budget.

Lacson, however, said they have yet to formally file a petition in court as more evidence is collated indicating violation of the General Appropriations Act of 2015 by the apparent revival of the PDAF.

“I think we have a solid case (on the violation of the 2015 GAA). We have clear evidence that PDAF has been revived,” Lacson told a gathering of anti-pork barrel groups at Golf and Country Club in Pasig City.

“More evidence is coming in. We will devise a way to make systematic the filing of the case in court,” he said.

Lacson said a petition to stop the violation of the 2015 GAA will soon be filed. He said they already have a draft of the petition. –Cecille Suerte Felipe, Delon Porcalla