MANILA, Philippines - Call it anything you want, just not “pork.”
Members of the House of Representatives – neophytes and old-timers alike – will still be entitled to their usual district allocations, according to prospective speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
“Congressmen will be allowed to propose projects needed in their districts so it can be included in line budgeting,” the returning Davao del Norte congressman said, making sure there will be no more lump sums for lawmakers, as the Supreme Court (SC) ruled.
The new House leadership does not intend to violate a 2014 SC ruling against lump sum allocations, especially insertions after the annual national budget is passed. But it will still give every congressman his due – which will be about P80 million each per annum.
While Alvarez raised doubts whether Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno is willing to give the 290 House members their pork barrel allocations, the department chief has so far agreed with Alvarez that lawmakers can indeed propose projects.
Diokno said Filipinos and the public in general have to understand and recognize that while the legislators’ primary mandate is lawmaking, these politicians still have a responsibility in their respective districts or to their specific constituencies.
Unlike in the previous pork barrel system, Diokno said allocations could not be changed and every proposal would be evaluated and studied before it could be included in the national budget.
The Department of Budget and Management will submit to the House a proposed P3.3-trillion national budget for 2017.
Project proposals of congressmen or senators will be funded under the soon-to-be-submitted national budget.
This is where the proposals of lawmakers will be itemized for inclusion in the proposed budget.
In ruling against lump sum allocations, the high court prohibited lawmakers “to intervene, assume or participate in any of the post-enactment stages of the budget execution.”
Alvarez has vowed that the annual budget would no longer contain lump sum allocations.
House insiders revealed neophyte lawmakers have been told to submit to the appropriations committee a list of their projects for a total of P80 million – P50 million for hard projects like roads and P30 million for soft projects like scholarships and hospitalization.
The practice of giving lump sums to lawmakers has been nullified by the SC, which ordered the executive department to download the congressmen’s entitlements to their respective legislative districts.
House members are still entitled to the Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF every year, but the funds are directly released to the agencies under their respective constituencies or local government units, such as the satellite offices of the departments of public works and highways, health and education, among others.
The source, who is a lawmaker, revealed that the House leadership under Alvarez made it clear that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the pork barrel system is back, but that “they are just exercising their power of the purse.”
“We were told that the act of submitting the list of projects should not be treated as a return to the pork barrel system because the identification process is being done even before the national budget for next year is approved,” the source said.
This could mean that there is “no violation” to the SC ruling declaring the unconstitutionality of the lump sum funds, which previously entitled senators to P200 million and congressmen P70 million a year.