4 senators with ‘pork’ overdraft cleared

They’re no spendthrifts.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) cleared yesterday four senators of charges that they overspent their pork barrel allocations, indicating that the figures cited in news reports might be erroneous.

Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin said DBM records on the senators’ withdrawals from their countrywide development fund (CDF) were within the limits allowed by law.

She added that the DBM figures were distinctly different from the news reports.

Boncodin surmised that the reporter could have culled the amounts of CDF withdrawals by Senate President Franklin Drilon as well as Senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Robert Barbers and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. from records of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which are publicly accessible through the Internet.

Drilon has allegedly spent P100 million; Magsaysay, P60 million; Barbers, P28.9 million; and Pimentel, P24.6 million.

The STAR obtained the amounts of CDF withdrawals by the four senators from highly reliable sources who even claimed that the document was a "closely guarded secret."

"When the report first came out last Monday, I immediately checked it out with our DBM website and as I saw it, it looked in order and I compared them to what appeared in the report in the newspapers," Boncodin said in a radio interview.

She clarified that the pork barrel allocations for the 24 senators this year were uniform at P200 million, while the 220 congressmen have P60 million.

"It’s difficult to have different amounts because it will only be a source of envy. So we don’t do that," Boncodin pointed out.

"There could be no such overspending because we cannot overspend if the appropriation is fixed. You cannot add to it (allocation). I would be jailed if such (anomaly) happens," she added.

Boncodin, however, theorized that the alleged overspending arose from the practice of "carryover" of CDF-funded projects to the succeeding fiscal year.

She also said pork barrel appropriations are good for three years during which the projects must be submitted to the DBM for fund release.

Citing DBM records are reflected in its own website, Boncodin said the legislators have used up 50 percent of the CDFs during the first six months of the year.

President Arroyo has given assurances that she would not scrap the pork barrel for the lawmakers despite a worsening deficit due to poor tax collections. –Marichu Villanueva