SC steps into ‘pork’ mess

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has stepped into the controversy involving the pork barrel funds of lawmakers.

The high court yesterday ordered the Senate and House of Representatives to respond to a petition filed by a group seeking the abolition of the pork barrel system.

SC spokesman Theodore Te said both chambers of Congress, headed by Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., were specifically directed to comment on a petition filed by the Social Justice Society (SJS) last week, seeking a writ of prohibition to permanently restrain appropriation of the pork barrel.

Te said the respondents have been given 10 days from receipt of notice to comply with the SC order.

He told a news conference that the petition of the group led by Samson Alcantara was initially assigned to Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr.

Velasco, however, inhibited from the case because his wife Lorna is the incumbent representative of Ang Mata’s Alagaan party-list.

“Because of the inhibition, the case will then be raffled to another member-in-charge,” Te said.

Te, however, clarified the SC’s action does not necessarily mean the high court has already given due course to the petition, noting the separation of powers of the legislative and the judicial branches of government.

“Usually, comment is required before the justices decide if they would give due course to the petition,” he said.

In its petition filed last Aug. 28, the SJS said the pork barrel system is a “mockery” of the constitutional mandate on accountability, honesty and integrity of public officers.

They argued the pork barrel system “allows the perversion of taxation by providing opportunities for the members thereof to gorge themselves on funds collected pursuant to tax legislation they have enacted purportedly for the public good.”

They said the system also allows the executive to have control over lawmakers, thus violating the constitutional principle on separation of powers.

Another defeated senatorial candidate, Greco Belgica, filed a similar petition yesterday.

Belgica, an ordained pastor and former Manila councilor, also asked the high court to abolish the pork barrel system in a 50-page petition.

But unlike SJS, Belgica included in his petition the special funds of the Office of the President, naming Malacañang as respondent. 

His petition, however, was not included in yesterday’s agenda of the high court and would be tackled in the next session on Sept. 10.

Belgica explained the system on discretionary funds of both Congress and Malacañang “violates the constitutional limits given to the executive and the legislative because they are able to spend money beyond what is approved by Congress since these are lump sum funds.”

Belgica is representing the groups Change Agents, Citizens Crime Watch, Movement Against Dynasty, and the Bible Mode, among others.

The 24 senators in the country receive P200 million each in PDAF, while the more than 200 of the House of Representatives are entitled to P70 million each.