Let there be no pork barrel

Today is the second day of a seminar among some vice mayors and members of Sangguniang Bayan from Negros Oriental and Leyte, as they respond to an unusual display of cooperation among three government agencies namely the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Office of the Ombudsman (Visayas) and the Civil Service Commission. These three government bodies are doing their best to develop the capacity of our local officials and that is the reason these public officers have come to our city. As our contribution to their learning atmosphere, let us demonstrate to these ladies and gentlemen, wherever we meet them, our famous brand of Cebuano hospitality.

 Few nights ago, while I played with the remote control of our bedroom TV, I chanced upon an interview of Senator Panfilo Lacson. He was a study of a public official, careful with his statements and refreshing in his thoughts. The topic that engaged me more had something to do with an aberration of his legislative function. I refer to the senator’s position as regards pork barrel. Of course, I assume that this is the term given to the huge amount of public funds assigned to lawmakers, the concept being that legislators identify their pet projects and these are funded by the pork barrel.

 Sen. Lacson is known to be the only other senator who has refused to touch the pork barrel, the other, to my understanding, being Sen. Joker Arroyo. It is the continuing position of this lawmaker to distance himself from this fund as if this money carries some malady. The way I understand him is that he shares with the public an unglamorous perception that the pork barrel is a source of corrupt practice.

 To his credit, Sen. Lacson, in that interview, was circumspect in his words. He did not directly accuse congressmen and senators who avail of the pork barrel as corrupt officials, although he hinted that the system allows certain percentages of the fund to line the pockets of government officials.

 Bearing in mind that the senator successfully eluded arrest for over a year, I thought he, in letting out a part of his contempt for the pork barrel, also managed to conceal his total disgust for his colleagues availing of such funding. That was understandable. He had to tread thin line. Beyond the resonance of loud rumors, some of which are peddled by otherwise responsible sectors of our society that this or that lawmaker got this or that percentage cut out of this or that project, we don’t even have atiny morsel of evidence with which to convict the legislator.

 I claim above that the system of spreading public funds among legislators via the pork barrel is an aberration of their duties. My basis is our own constitution. The constant lesson in government that we teach our students, from elementary through college, is that we have three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. As we endeavor to explain the function of the legislature, we always say that senators and congressmen make the laws.

 True enough, our fundamental law, in a legal prose, describes such function. There is no provision in our constitution that reposes upon our senators and congressmen the task of delivering school buildings, roads and other infrastructure projects to their constituents via the pork barrel funds for this is the work of the executive branch.

Yet, we are certain that our lawmakers cling to the pork. They tell us, rather proudly, that they have brought to their constituents projects as if that is the measure their ability to do their job. Many of our legislators tend to conceal the real constitutional mandate. They somehow forget that they are elected by the people to conceive and write quality legislation. Why this thought process? The kind of funding must have something to do with it, for sure. Let there be no pork barrel and, I believe, only few of them will seek re-election.