MANILA, Philippines - Former senator Panfilo Lacson is planning to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court on what he called “reincarnation of the pork barrel” in the 2015 national budget, which had been declared unconstitutional by the court.
At a forum at Club Filipino yesterday, Lacson said he would file a petition for prohibition before the SC against certain provisions of the 2015 General Appropriations Act, which he said contained around P424 billion in lump sum appropriations.
He noted that lump sums, known as discretionary funds, are “parked” in the budget of just 11 out of 21 major line agencies of the national government.
He said the national budget is the lifeblood of the country’s economy and must circulate and freely flow.
“I am willing to spearhead a move to go to the Supreme Court – the justices themselves are victims here because their decision is circumvented,” said Lacson.
The SC ruled the unconstitutionality of some provisions of DAP, a brainchild of the Aquino administration with Budget Secretary Florencio Abad as the alleged architect.
Lacson said his team has collated sufficient evidence – photographs and documents – to support the petition against some provisions of the 2015 national budget.
“We have up to next week to file a petition for prohibition before the SC. We have sufficient evidence and we are still gathering more… PDAF was resurrected… pork barrel is very much alive and kicking,” he said.
He cited the “reincarnation” of the DAP and Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in the P2.6- trillion 2015 budget.
Lacson said his team found presence of reincarnated “pork barrel” in at least four departments – agriculture, public works and highways, health and social welfare and development.
He noted the DA alone has at least P6.25 billion in its budget, which can be classified as “pork barrel.”
“It was added to various projects of the DA, particularly in the regional level and became PDAF.”
Lacson warned that several members of the House of Representatives could be charged with the supposed insertion of “pork barrel” into the budget.
Lacson said some leaders claimed to be champions of public service and goodwill but only in words.
“In our present time, we have grown used to stories of leaders who claim to be champions of public service and goodwill, but are ironically the same leaders who know in their heart of hearts that they do not practice what they preach. Some, in fact, are facing gut-wrenching graft and corruption accusations.”
A few months ago, Lacson started going around the country to conduct an information drive on the equitable distribution of the national budget to local government units aimed at creating more development opportunities and improving the delivery of basic services, especially in far-flung communities.