COA urged to audit P361-B ‘pork’ of LGUs

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmakers asked the Commission on Audit (COA) yesterday to launch a detailed special examination of what they described as the P361-billion pork barrel of local government units (LGUs) this year.

Rep. Gary Alejano of party-list group Magdalo said the scrutiny should be similar to what the COA did with billions in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations from 2007 to 2009, a big part of which was found to have ended up in bogus foundations.

“There should be increased transparency and accountability not only among national agencies and officials but also among LGUs and local leaders,” he said.

He said many LGUs are treating their internal revenue allotment (IRA) and assistance to LGU (ALGU) funds as pork barrel. He added that local leaders should be made to account for such funds.

IRA is the LGUs’ share from national taxes. Provinces, cities, towns, and barangays are allocated a total of P342 billion in IRA this year. Additionally, they have P19 billion in ALGU funds in the 2014 national budget.

Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice said the P19-billion ALGU includes the P200-million PDAF that Sen. Jinggoy Estrada had realigned to Manila, where his father, former President Joseph Estrada, is mayor, and to Caloocan City and Lal-lo town in Cagayan.

“The P100 million that Sen. Estrada gave to Manila is clearly a pork barrel fund, since he could have influence on its use through his father,” he said.

He said if the money is released, COA should see to it that there is no intervention from Sen. Estrada on how it is used.

Estrada split his remaining P100-million PDAF evenly between Caloocan, whose mayor is an opposition ally, and Lal-lo.

Erice said COA should also closely monitor how the P300 million realigned by Sen. Nancy Binay to the National Housing Authority (NHA) would be used.