House, Senate keep P7-B ‘pork’

They may disagree on many matters, including how to go about Charter change, but senators and congressmen do agree that their P7.1-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel must be retained in the General Appropriations Act of 2006.

The Senate also approved yesterday P77.8 billion in lump sum appropriations in the 2006 budget bill.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the P7.183-billion PDAF was retained by senators in the same way that the House of Representatives presented it to them.

"There is no change (in the lump sum proposals)," Villar said. "What was passed was the whole PDAF. It is a development fund. Normally, and in most cases, that is where projects of the President come from, the House and Senate."

Villar defended the Senate’s "in toto (total)" adoption of the P7.183-billion PDAF proposed by their counterparts in the House of Representatives, with whom the Senate has had disagreements over the issue of amending the 1987 Constitution.

"It is not automatic that when there is PDAF, there is pork barrel. It is subject to an agreement, pinagkakasunduan sa (it is agreed upon at the) bilateral conference," Villar told reporters during a break in the morning deliberations at the Senate yesterday.

Before transmitting the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) to the Senate, the House restored the P20-million pork barrel allocation for each legislator in the 2006 budget.

In justifying the retention of the senators’ pork barrel, Villar said the fund "is convertible into projects."

"The allocation can be derived from any budget. You just identify it. The pork is convertible into projects. The project will continue even without any senator identifying it. It will always be there. The same budget will give you so much pork barrel, the same budget will give you nothing," he said.

A Pulse Asia survey earlier this year showed that Filipinos are in favor of reducing or abolishing the congressional pork barrel because of the perception that such funds are misused or pocketed altogether by the lawmakers to whom the funds are assigned.

Last weekend, opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson declared that he would again forgo his P200-million pork allocations during the last year of his six-year term to "prevent graft." Lacson wants instead to put his pork barrel "to good use" by providing additional funds for firemen and policemen.

Villar said he received a formal letter from Lacson formalizing his intention to give up his pork barrel fund.

The Senate did not touch the PDAF allocations included in the P1-trillion budget for 2006, nor did they alter the proposed allocations to local government units (LGUs), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization fund (P5 billion), Agrarian Reform Fund (P7.341 billion), Calamity Fund (P700 million), Contingent Fund (P800 M) or E-Government Fund (P1 million).

The other inclusions in the 2006 GAB were: the International Commitment Fund (P1.9 billion); Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (P8.7 billion); National Unification Fund (50-million); Pension and Gratuity Fund (P52.5 billion); debt service allocation (P676.9 billion); and unprogrammed funds (P57.105 million).

"These are not yet considered approved. After this, all the amendments of the senators will be reviewed by all senators. We will meet in a caucus and we will review all proposed amendments before we draft the final version, which will be approved by all," Villar said.

He was optimistic that the Senate and the House would be able to pass the much-delayed 2006 budget within the week.

"We have to pass (the budget) this week. We’re looking at Tuesday (today)... all the senators will look at the amendments. There’s at least one senator who will not be happy with these. That might derail the approval. It’s not possible for a version that will make all senators happy," he said.

The Senate has been at odds with some members of the House for espousing Charter change and disregarding the need for the Senate and House of Representatives to vote separately on the matter.

The Senate also made good on the threat to slash the President’s budget for the so-called Kalayaan Barangay Program Fund and Kilos Asenso Support Fund, worth P3 billion and P3.592 billion, respectively.

Villar said senators will have to discuss with their counterparts in the House the P13.1-billion budget eyed for the Compensation Adjustment Fund intended to pay for the P1,000 allowance increase for state workers.

The separate bills of both chambers for adjusting the allowances of government workers were passed, although the senators and congressmen have yet to approve the bills in a bicameral session.

The House and the Senate have conflicting provisions on the P1,000 increase, which the Senate wants hiked to P2,000, effective in July this year. The House wants the P1,000 additional allowance to be made retroactive from January this year. In either case, this hike in state workers’ allowances will cost the government some P13.1 billion.

Meanwhile, in Tagbilaran City in Bohol, the 1.7 million-strong Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) said it will junk re-electionist senators who vote to scrap the Kilos Asenso Support and Barangay Kalayaan Development funds from the budget come the 2007 elections.

Bohol Gov. and ULAP president Erico Aumentado, who also heads the League of Provinces of the Philippines, said both ULAP and the LPP have agreed to vote against these senators regardless of party affiliation in the upcoming 2007 elections. ULAP is the umbrella organization of the country’s 11 LGU leagues.

"These are not pork barrel funds," Aumentado said in a statement. "If the senators scrap them, we will retaliate by similarly scrapping them from our list of 2007 (candidates) even if we belong to the same political party." — With Peter Dejaresco