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SENATORS TO GIVE UP PORK IF ARROYO YIELDS DISCRETIONARY FUND

SENATORS were amenable to the abolition of their pork barrel if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would forego the multibillion-peso fund at her disposal, Senate President Manuel Villar said on Monday.

“In fact, we prefer if there is no more pork barrel for everyone but this should include the President,” Villar said in an RMN radio interview.

But for the meantime, the Senate has slashed the P9.1 billion addition to the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more popularly known as the pork barrel, which the House of Representatives inserted in the proposed P1.126-trillion national budget for 2007.

The pork barrel finances the pet projects of legislators. Though the money is not directly released to senators and members of the House, the pork barrel is believed to be a source of kickbacks for lawmakers. The kickbacks come from contractors who bag the projects.

The P9.1 billion in the PDAF approved by the House was an increase over the P6.2 billion set aside for the fund by Malacañang when it submitted its proposed budget to the House.

A fuming Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago took to the Senate floor on Monday to denounce the House of Representatives for defending its “unconstitutional” act of increasing the P1.26-trillion budget for 2007.

Santiago, irked by the statement of Representative Jose Ma. Salceda, House appropriations committee chair, that she had gotten it wrong, said the increases made by the House were not only against the Constitution but were also fueled by greed and corruption.

She said the 17.3-percent increase the House gave itself was proof of the House’s “insatiable” appetite [for pork].

Last week, the senator accused the House of bloating the budget by over P8 billion, citing the “mind-numbing” increases in various departments.

Villar and Senator Panfilo Lacson raised the need to abolish the pork barrel after Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said over the weekend that Malacañang had the discretion to release the fund to selected senators and members of the House.

This came after Lacson said no more than five Malacañang-friendly senators were able to get half of their P200 million in individual pork last year. He also said Malacañang should explain where some P4 billion in unreleased pork fund for this year went.

It is hard to determine how much pork barrel the President has, considering that the entire budget is deemed at her disposal, according to Senator Franklin Drilon, chair of the Senate finance committee.

But he said he would try to find out when he prepares the final committee report on the 2007 budget, which is being deliberated upon in the Senate. The Senate finance committee approved the Palace-proposed P6.2 billion for PDAF.

Pork barrel becomes a headache for senators because they are besieged with requests from congressmen, governors, other local officials, schools and universities, hospitals and nongovernment organizations looking for funding for their projects that do not receive government support, according to Villar.

“At least if they know we do not have the pork barrel, nobody will come to us,” he said.

“But the problem is where will (all that money) go? All of that money in the budget now will go to the President.”

Of the P6.2 billion in the PDAF this year, Malacañang has released only P2.3 billion, according to Drilon.

Villar confirmed that most of the senators had not been able to avail themselves of their pork share. “To be fair to senators, they have not stopped working even if they do not have (the pork),” he said.

But he disagreed with the advice of Senate President Pro Tempore Juan Flavier that senators butter up the President to get their share.

“That is also possible because there are hospitals who are asking for help but a majority of senators are not like that and we do not go to Malacañang to ask for that,” Villar said.

Drilon echoed Villar’s sentiment, saying he would not butter up the Palace just to get his pork. Drilon has not been able to get a single centavo of his pork barrel since he called for the President’s resignation in July 2005.

“Let’s face it -- Malacañang uses it as a political tool for its allies,” Drilon said.
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