CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma yesterday urged the public to continue its vigilance in guarding against the issue of pork barrel and the underlying disease of corruption.
Palma said Filipinos should not lose focus and become complacent despite the recent ruling of Supreme Court ruling declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund unconstitutional.
“The idea of Judge (Meinrado) Paredes is very wonderful. Ingon siya nga PDAF is unconstitutional. Pero he said nga we should not just stop and just cross our legs and mag-smile-smile kita. Kay like many other government initiatives, ug mag-relax ta, basin ma-resurrect. Basin banhawon utro. So ang iyang point is, tungod kay unconstitutional man kini, ug tungod nagtuo kita nga this is not good the way it was done before nga ang mga PDAF nga wa man kita kasabot ug giunsa niadto ang kwarta,†Palma said.
Paredes, like Palma, was one of the speakers during yesterday’s general assembly of the Cebu Coalition Against the Pork Barrel System inside the Archbishop’s Residence, attended by around 70 member organizations representing interfaith, academe, business, and civil society sectors.
Palma added that everyone must make sure that all the efforts and hard work that the coalition has undertaken must not be put to waste with the sudden return of pork barrel.
He also extended the message of Pope Francis in his pastoral letter, stressing the importance of social awareness and responsibility as good Christians.
“So in principle, the Pope was saying nga we should not be allergic to the concerns of the society. We should be able to love the country and our society so much that we should be very concerned about what’s happening around us and he was saying it is our duty to make this world a better place to live in. So that involves the kind of laws that we have, the kind of system that we have. And he said we should not be afraid to voice out what we think would be good for our society and for our country,†Palma explained.
Moreover, he defended the active participation of Church officials and leaders on the issue of pork barrel and corruption.
“Some people might think I’m an archbishop, how come I’m interested with pork barrel. How come I’m interested with PDAF, with these things? But precisely because of the concerns which affect the lives of the people and if we discern and think of a better way to use taxes, of a better way to use the money of the government, of a better way that we can profit from what we are paying to the government, then we make our community a better place to live in. So it’s not my idea. I’m explaining the idea of Pope Francis. That is beautiful and I think that’s very timely,†he said.
In this speech, Paredes yesterday highlighted the role of the people against the pork barrel system.
“The role of the people is to make sure pork barrel will not resurrect,†he said.
He went on to explain that the discretionary fund of members of the legislature has existed since 1922 when it was called the congressional pork barrel. However, this was discontinued in 1972 after the martial law was declared.
In 1982, Paredes said the Batasang Pambansa introduced the Support for Local Development Projects under the article on National Aid to Local Government Units as a new item in the General Appropriations Act.
He said based on reports it was under the SLDP that the practice of giving lump-sum allocations to individual legislators began.
It was in 2000, the name Priority Development Assistance Fund appeared in the GAA.
“Sa time ni Gloria (former president Gloria Arroyo) ni-enter ang Non Government Organizations. From 1922 to 2013 ang congressional pork barrel sige’g gamit sa mga officials pag-abuno sa dapit asa sila mudaog,†Paredes said.
“Angay natong bantayan kay ang tanang pork tua na sa president. Kinahanglan tanan mo- participate, simbahan and the people,†he added.
Coalition convenor Marc Canton said these past few months they mellowed in their fight against corruption because of the earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda. He said the Cebu coalition attended to the victims of Yolanda and the earthquake, but this did not mean they stopped fighting.
“We will continue to rid corruption,†he told the media, adding there is still system uncovered by the Supreme Court ruling.
“We will be working together and we’ll make sure that we will be going to transform the broken system to a new system…we want to eliminate corruption. We want to make sure that there will be a check-and-balance,†he added. —/BRP (FREEMAN)