Noy urged to reconsider impounding of Manila ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino should reconsider his decision to impound P100 million in pork barrel funds realigned to the city government of Manila by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said yesterday.

In a telephone interview with The STAR, Estrada said the city government badly needs the funds from his son’s pork barrel to enable it recover from bankruptcy.

Sen. Estrada is in detention for plunder and graft charges in connection with the pork barrel scam. With him in detention for the same charge are opposition senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr.

“I was wondering why the Estradas are singled-out again. That (realignment) was very legitimate. I inherited a bankrupt government,” Estrada said. “It was only P100 million. I would have requested for the entire P200 million because Manila really needs money to recover from bankruptcy.”

He said his predecessor, Alfredo Lim, left the city government in debt. He said the city owed the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) P684 million and the Maynilad Water Services P57 million. The city’s budget deficit stands at around P3.4 billion, Estrada said.

“It’s only P100 million and it is not even enough to pay the entire P684-million debt to Meralco that was left behind by Lim in Manila city government. But we need funds to pay the city government’s debts. Is he getting even because his protégé (Lim) lost to me in the last elections?” Estrada said.

“He should not have vetoed it. Why pick on Estradas. The realignment is legitimate,” Estrada said.       

Also ordered impounded by Malacañang was Sen. Nancy Binay’s P300-million Priority Development Assistance Fund allocation. PDAF was the official term for congressional pork barrel.

Estrada had also realigned P50 million each to Caloocan City and Lal-lo in Cagayan province.

Binay realigned P300 million to the National Housing Authority (NHA), headed by her father, Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The realignments were made in December last year, before the Senate and the House of Representatives approved the 2014 budget and a month after the Supreme Court declared the PDAF unconstitutional.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said Estrada’s P200 million and Binay’s P300 million would no longer be released as this year’s budget will expire on Dec. 31.

He said the release of such amounts would require a “special request” from the proponent of the realignment and the intended beneficiary-agency.“So far, I have not seen any such request,” he said.

In a statement, Binay also slammed Abad, saying the latter had unjustly treated funds for NHA as her PDAF allocation. – With Christina Mendez