More on the pork to our politicians,

We are a group of 16-year-old students who want to voice out our opinions on social issues - and we want to be heard.

For the past four years, we have visited Itaas Elementary, a public school in Muntinlupa, for outreach. It frustrates us to see the children having so little even of the basic necessities every person has the right to have. Some do not even have a decent chair to sit on, a pencil to write with, or a notebook to write on. It makes us wonder where all the money is going because we know that our parents pay taxes year in and year out.

Seeing the condition of the children of Itaas Elementary school disheartens us every time; considering that education is the key to a better future for themselves as well as their families.With quality education, these children can be taught the necessary  information and know-how in order to obtain lucrative jobs in the future.  What you are really doing - by  channeling public funds into your own pockets - is pushing them deeper into the poverty they wish to free themselves from.

Since these children have no voice, we wish to be their voice. And we wish to say that the lives of the students of Itaas - as well as that of the other poor children of our country - are unfortunate because you robbed them of the funds that could have been used for better education. Thus, in behalf of every Filipino child whose voices are silenced by poverty, we wish to say that: We suffer so much because of YOU.

Monica Gamboa

Bea Ipapo

Mackey Cureg

Angelica Martinez

Valerie Wei

4th year high school students

PAREF Woodrose School,Ayala Alabang

Why gang up

on the pork barrel?

Why kill the chicken that lays the golden eggs simply because somebody's stealing the eggs? Spare the chicken, protect the eggs. Let the pork barrel stay, safeguard the barrel.

Lifting from the Internet, it says that "the term 'pork barrel politics' usually refers to spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes."

So, the pork barrel, after all, has a noble intention. Why abolish it? Let's protect it, instead. The 'term pork barrel' has been used as "a homely metaphor for any form of public spending to the citizenry. It refers to political bills that bring home the bacon to a legislator's district and constituents. Pork has been used at least since the 1870s as a label for politically motivated federal funding for local projects."

So, there you are. But why are we being too hostile to it? Let it stay, but no more lump sum disbursements. Let the COA do their job. Train them how to detect early signs of corruption, or better still, on how to avoid it.

And what about the legitimate NGOs, such as the Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines, Inc.?  Why should they be deprived of the "juicy pork" simply because some ever-hungry legislators and manipulators are feasting on it?

Again, let the pork stay, safeguard it, and run after the perpetrators.

Antolin M. De la Serna