No ‘pork’ chop, Palace insists

Malacañang is not keen on giving in to calls to cut the multi-million “pork barrel" of lawmakers, saying doing so will hamper the delivery of social services to the people. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda on Sunday said the concept of pork barrel, or the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), is “sound." He said only the implementation is being abused. “The concept can help people. It’s a good concept. It’s the implementation that has been abused. So if you cut down the pork barrel, it would also mean cutting down on the social services for a particular district of a particular congressman or congresswoman," Lacierda said. A senator is entitled to P200 million in pork barrel funds each year, while a congressman is entitled to P70 million annually. The allocation of congressional pork barrel for this year is expected to reach P22.3 billion. Pork barrel allocations are perceived to be sources of corruption. Lacierda said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) under Florencio Abad has been ordered to implement safeguards that would make PDAF-funded projects transparent and accounted for. “Maliwanag ang position ni Secretary Abad at ni Pangulong (Benigno) Aquino na dapat accountable at transparent ang paggamit ng pondo ng mga pork barrel para walang insinuation at allegation ng graft and corruption," he said. (The position of Secretary Abad and President Aquino is clear that there should be transparency in the use of the pork barrel fund to avoid allegations of graft and corruption.) Aquino himself was a former congressman and senator. Abad, on the other hand, was a former congressman. Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III’s proposal to cut the pork barrel by at least one-third to help shrink the budget deficit, which is projected at P325 billion this year, has received minimal support. Aside from him, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, currently in hiding in connection with double murder case filed against him, is also in favor of slicing the pork barrel of lawmakers. - KBK, GMANews.TV