Calls to abolish the pork snowballing

A huge debate is now underway to have the pork barrel a.k.a. Priority Development Assistance Program (PDAF) abolished. This was an offshoot of the P10-billion scam that involved a lot of syndicates like JLN of Janet Lim Napoles where a great number of our people are appalled that this was allegedly happening in the era of the so-called Daang Matuwid. That the daughter of Janet Napoles has been appearing on Facebook having all those expensive or luxurious bags in a foreign country has further incensed the sensibilities of our people and this has gone viral in social networking sites.

I was watching Talkback with Tina Monzon Palma over ANC last Monday night with her guests former Manila Mayor Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay Party-list, Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna, Dodo Macasaet of Code NGO and Eddie Dorotan of Galing Pook Foundation on the topic “What do you think are the benefits of the pork barrel in a community.” I heard none!

That show was quite a revelation and proof that there is a growing sentiment within the hearts of our people to have the pork barrel or its formal namesake PDAF totally abolished and I fully concur with this idea. That TV program gave us a lot about the corruption happening inside the Legislative branch of government, like how the pork barrel has even been used by the ruling party bigwigs against their bullheaded member Congressmen for them to toe the line on certain political or moral issues that it wanted to push. Our best example is how Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III used the pork barrel to get those corrupt Congressmen to vote for the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

But will it happen in our time? Perhaps the big question to ask is whether Congress would allow itself to remove the very motivation that made these people run for Congress in the first place. As Lito Atienza pointed out, “The pork barrel is not even democratic because there are no checks and balances in appropriating this fund. Congress appropriates, Congress approves, Congress releases.” Indeed, there is no reason why Congress should not abolish the pork barrel… and if they don’t listen, perhaps it is time for us to abolish Congress…permanently.

Just imagine a Congressman or woman getting P70 million annually while a Senator gets P200 million annually and since these political elite use the pork barrel to get themselves elected again and again, they use this money to literally buy votes instead of spending all that money on their respective constituents. But then Eddie Dorotan was saying that Senators would only pour money on vote-rich areas…, which means the pork barrel is detrimental to those poor and far-flung provinces. Just imagine when those poor folk finally get to realize that those politicians pulled a fast one on them.

That was just for starters coming from civic society. Now here comes the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) when incoming President Socrates Villegas declared that the abuse or misuse of the pork barrel was “Politics of Patronage.” That’s exactly what we’ve been harping about all along… that the political elite used the people’s money to buy the people’s votes during elections, and when it comes to pushing for their respective laws… they use their power to release the pork against those hardnosed Congressmen so they would toe the party line!

In lambasting the continued use of the pork barrel, Bishop Villegas said, “We in the church can contribute to the corruption by grabbing a piece of the pie through our solicitations from government officials, from candles to basketball uniforms to bags of cement to government bulldozers.” Finally the cat is out of the bag… even our priests and bishops are “guilty” of getting a portion of the hated pork barrel and this call by the CBCP couldn’t have come at the perfect time… when civil society is up in arms against it.

I have always maintained that the pork barrel is the single most important motive why people run for Congress. But these ugly politicians would never admit this in public and in fact during the campaign, they reach out to the voters because they want to serve the poor…kuno! This is the biggest crap that I’ve always heard from politicians every election campaign.

It is for this reason why I was extremely elated that finally, the CBCP has a great advocacy to demand that our political leaders abolish the pork barrel. However, just like the call to an end of political dynasties… that will never happen in our lifetime. These politicians would never dare think of removing the very reason why they run for office in the first place.

It is for this reason why I’ve always called for genuine political reforms through a constitutional convention (con-con), which we all know can never happen under the watch of President  Aquino, as he is the “Capo di tutti cappi” of the political elite that hijacked the EDSA People’s Revolt and handed it back to politicians. I dare say it is time to go back to the streets.

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