The anti-PDAF rally in Zamboanga City. (Mindanao Examiner Photo – Ely Dumaboc)
ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 26, 2013) – Hundreds of people in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines have marched to the streets on Monday denouncing corruption in government and called on the total abolition of the controversial pork barrel fund given to legislators.
The rallyists, many carrying streamers, converged in Plaza Pershing before dispersing peacefully. The marchers failed to gather enough people to join the anti-corruption rally dubbed as “El Pueblo Unido Contra Robo” which literally translates to “The People United against Theft.”
The march coincided with the nationwide protests against the Priority Development Assistance Fund which is being enjoyed by lawmakers – P70 million for members of Congress and P200 million for each senators annually which they use for small development projects in their district.
But the PDAF is also the source of corruption where some lawmakers allegedly get as much as 50% kickbacks on projects, mostly covered courts, road asphalt overlay, and computer set donation for schools, and medicines for village health programs, fertilizers and pesticides for farmers, among others.
Aside from Zamboanga, citizens also held rallies against PDAF in the cities of Cagayan and Davao and other parts in the southern region of Mindanao.
The Department of Budget and Management has posted on its website a list of where lawmakers – congressmen and senators – spent their pork barrel fund.
The report – which is accessible on this URL http://www.pdaf.dbm.gov.ph – included all projects where legislators channelled their pork barrel fund. It included the nature of the project, its recipient, implementing unit, the release date and the exact amount disbursed.
DBM records show that in 2012, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate received a total of P24.237 billion in PDAF releases. This year, members of Congress have so far received a total of P11.584 billion in pork barrel funds.
An opposition lawmaker Neri Colmenares has asked the Commission on Audit to look into the spending of President Benigno Aquino’s own pork barrel, especially the money that comes from the Malampaya funds.
The Malampaya funds consist of payments of Caltex and Shell to the Philippines for extracting natural gas in Malampaya near the province of Palawan. It is kept in the so-called Special Account 151 and Colmenares said the fund is not subject to appropriation under the national budget and is the biggest source of presidential pork.
Colmenares said the law clearly states that proceeds from the Malampaya contract should be spent on energy related projects in order to develop our energy capability and lower the cost of electricity.
He said the government has collected a total of P173 billion since 2002, but instead of turning these over to the General Fund, these were spent on non-energy related projects such as the P900 million from the Department of Agrarian Reform and for road constructions in various districts in the country favored by the president.
The lawmaker said about P38 billion have already been spent and the remaining P 132 billion is still in the hands of Aquino.
“Particular attention must be devoted in investigating the P5.8 billion given to the Department of Agriculture as agricultural guarantee fund for typhoon victims including the investigation of whether the beneficiaries of this huge amount actually exist. COA must include in its investigation the P7.09 billion given to build roads in lucky districts favored by the President through the Department of Public Works and Highways,” Colmenares said.
He also asked COA to investigate the P745 billion given to the Department of Health. He said the COA should also investigate the P1 billion given to the Armed Forces’ Modernization Fund since there is no record or documents for the release of the money, and the P2.14 billion allocated to the police for its so-called disaster preparedness program.
“While the Filipino people suffer under the yoke of very high rates for electricity, the Malampaya fund is being spent on non energy related projects like the P 445 million spent by President Aquino to buy a US warship. If the Malampaya funds were used to fund sustainable energy projects we would not be suffering the same level of brownouts and high electricity cost that is plaguing the people now,” Colmenares said.
“This is the problem with presidential pork and that is why it should be abolished. The people and Congress have no control of the funds, giving the president the power to decide which project to undertake, which mayor or congressman to support, and how much.”
He said the constitutional provision that Congress has the power of the purse is now only in name, since the national budget is practically controlled by the president through his billions of pesos of presidential pork. (Mindanao Examiner)
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