Non-impeachers get pork barrel

MANILA, Philippines - Congressmen who did not sign the impeachment complaint against then chief justice Renato Corona last December have received their pork barrel allocations for this year from Malacañang.

Among them is Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, the only congressman who testified for Corona’s defense.

According to a Department of Budget and Management (DBM) report, the Palace disbursed P32.3 million for Tiangco’s district on June 6 and 14, just days after the Senate impeachment court voted 20-3 to convict and remove Corona from office for violating the Constitution and betraying public trust.

Another recipient is Pastor Alcover Jr. of the party-list group Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD). He has received P20 million. Alcover not only stayed away from the Corona impeachment process but had even threatened to file an impeachment complaint against President Aquino as well.

The disbursements came from the P25-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the official name of the congressional pork barrel, which allocates P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each member of the House of Representatives.

Similar releases have been made to senators, including Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., two of the three senator-judges who voted to acquit Corona.

Another House member who did not sign the impeachment complaint against Corona but received his PDAF allocation for 2012 was Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, a party-mate of President Aquino in the ruling Liberal Party (LP).

Biazon received P35 million, or half of his annual P70-million allocation.

The LP senatorial ticket in the May 2013 elections reportedly has a slot for him or his son, Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, who lost his senatorial bid in 2010.

A second LP non-impeacher, Hermilando Mandanas of Batangas, has received P20 million in PDAF funds.

He lost his chairmanship of the House ways and means committee shortly after refusing to sign the impeachment complaint against Corona, who is his provincemate.

In contrast, the elder Biazon kept his defense committee post.

Allies of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who stayed away from the impeachment process, are getting their share of pork barrel fund releases.

They include Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, P35 million; Amelita Villarosa of Mindoro Occidental, P35 million; Martin Romualdez of Leyte, P34.150 million; Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao, P32.8 million; Marc Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur, P32.8 million; Imelda Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte, P28.6 million; and her daughter Fatima Aliah, also of Lanao del Norte, P15 million for 2012 and P34.12 million for 2011.

While non-Corona impeachers are getting PDAF releases, some prominent House members who impeached the former chief justice are still awaiting their funds for this year.

They include Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., and Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite, Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte, Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora, and Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Dasmariñas City in Cavite.

Abaya was manager of the House panel that prosecuted Corona in his Senate impeachment trial, while Fariñas and Barzaga were part of the panel. Angara served as one of the prosecution panel’s three spokespersons.

Some key prosecution players have received PDAF funds for this year. They include lead prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr. of Iloilo, P35 million; prosecution panel member Raul Daza of Northern Samar, P30.58 million; and spokesmen Miro Quimbo of Marikina, P29.68 million, and Erin Tañada of Quezon, P28.65 million.

Other notable House members who have received their funds are Jack Enrile of Cagayan, P34 million for 2012 and P3 million for 2011; Lani Mercado Revilla of Cavite, P35 million (2012); and Mark Villar of Las Piñas, P20 million for 2012 and P15 million for 2011.

Enrile is the son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Revilla the wife of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., and Villar the son of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr.

Senators Enrile, Revilla and Villar are among the 20 members of the impeachment court who voted to convict Corona.

Lord Allan Jay Velasco of Marinduque has received P33.45 million for 2012 and P3.7 million for 2011.

Velasco, who signed the Corona impeachment complaint, is a son of Corona’s Supreme Court colleague Justice Presbitero Velasco.