Bayan Muna Rep. Neri J. Colmenares today called the pork barrel inherently anomalous and challenged Pres. Benigno Aquino III to abolish the pork barrel system and let go of his presidential pork. Colmenares dismissed talks of stricter regulations of pork disbursements as useless and nothing more than insidious attempts to perpetuate and salvage the graft ridden pork barrel system.
“Pork barrel by nature is a lump sum amount which is used for patronage politics because, not only the amount but also the selection of the projects and its beneficiaries rests on the approval of one person. A presidential pork, like the Malampaya Fund, is inherently anomalous because (1) it is a source of graft and corruption; (2) it is used to favor allies by adding to their already bloated pork barrels giving these lucky officials electoral advantage; and (3) it violates the required collective and deliberative process of budgeting public funds, diverting these funds to unnecessary whimsical projects” explained Rep. Colmenares.
“The P 900 million Malampaya funds coursed through the DAR for ghost beneficiaries recently unearthed in the current pork barrel scandal is an example of the blatant corruption with which pork barrel is vulnerable to. The unexplained P2.14 Billion surprisingly given to the PNP in 2009 for “disaster preparedness” is at the very least highly irregular,” he added.
“Even if no corruption takes place, pork is still inherently anomalous because it is used in patronage politics. The 138 SARO’s giving P8.6 billion to certain lucky districts through the DPWH is an example of this anomalous patronage politics,” Rep. Colmenares added.
“There is no explanation why some districts got P 15 million, many got P40 million while some got more than P 200 million. DPWH SARO 09-09492 amounting to P500 million was given to a luckier district. Since there are more than 138 districts in the country, there were unlucky districts that were not favored by the presidential pork,” he said.
Rep. Colmenares further explained why pork is inherently anomalous. “The budget is supposedly a group output because it comes from the submission of government offices of their needs and deliberated by Congress to decide how much amount goes to which project of certain agencies. But in the end, millions or even billions of pork barrel may be arbitrarily spent to deodorize trash, build waiting sheds or similar whims, thereby negating the much ballyhooed “zero” or needs based budget of the Aquino administration,”
Pork is not an equalizer and anomalies cannot be regulated or restricted
“No amount of strict regulation or restrictions can stop these anomalies and all these talks about stricter monitoring is just a scheme to perpetuate this anomalous system. These did not work before, these will not work now. The pork barrel system must go and it must go now” declared Rep. Colmenares.
“Pres. Aquino is certainly not following the wishes of his “boss”, the Filipino people, when he supported the pork barrel system calling it an “equalizer”. It is in fact the great “un-equalizer” because it is enjoyed, not by everyone, but only by favored allies of the pork holder” said Rep. Colmenares.
“But of course, Pres. Aquino cannot let go of the pork barrel system despite the outrage of the people because he also wants to maintain his P132 billion Malampaya fund and other presidential pork barrel. Since there will be no support from Malacanang and Congress, we are asking for the people’s support for the approval of House Bill 1535 which seeks to abolish the pork barrel system. We are calling on our countrymen to organize anti-pork barrel groups and networks to deliver the fatal blow ‘para matigil na ang sistemang ito ng pambababoy sa pondo ng bayan,” concluded Colmenares
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