Preempting last Monday's anti-pork indignation rally, President Aquino, in an unscheduled press conference in Malacañang, dramatically declared that "it's time to abolish the PDAF." And he did.
But, almost simultaneously, his Budget & Management Secretary Florencio Abad announced that the P25.23 billion 'pork' for 2014 stays.
So, what actually was abolished was just the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or its name, but the pork barrel system, with some reforms, they say, stays. This time, however, Abad says, would be thorough line item budgeting, no more lump sum disbursing, and funding for projects would no longer be coursed through the NGOs. Sounds good.
But just the same, Congress still has a say, as identification and execution of projects would still be contingent upon the mercy and discretion of the lawmakers.
In his article 'Salted pork in the barrel,' Ramon Casiple says that "with the retention of the pork barrel system, President Aquino thus preserved one of the pillars of the traditional patronage system that was set up during the American colonial government, carried through the Commonwealth period and the pre-martial law republic, monopolized and perfected by dictator Marcos, and consequently revived by the late President Cory Aquino in 1990."
He further says that it is impossible to abolish the pork barrel system without abolishing the whole political patronage system.
This is PNoy's veritable dilemma. Would he do away with the long-observed political patronage system, and suffer the consequences of building up the ire and antagonism of the honorable men and women in Congress?