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Congress balks at abolition
However, the Senate and House leadership seems to be balking at a total abolition of the pork barrel system through legislation as demanded by an angry public, preferring to suspend it on a yearly basis.
Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte on Friday refused to be pinned down on the issue of permanently abolishing the pork barrel.
Reacting to Carpio’s dictum that the pork barrel can only be abolished either through an act of Congress or a ruling by the Supreme Court, Drilon said the Senate intended to eliminate the PDAF in the budget deliberations but on a yearly basis. He did not give a reason for saying so.
Moreover, he said “there was no need for a special law to abolish the PDAF as an item in the GAA,” as the PDAF can be eliminated if the President decides not to include it in the proposed budget or if Congress itself excised the item from the GAA.
Drilon said the President has two more options to take the pork out of the budget—Mr. Aquino could exercise his power of line of veto or fully or partially impound the release of any item in the GAA, including the PDAF.
‘Pork does not exist’
Belmonte, meanwhile, maintained that “pork does not exist outside of the GAA.” He claimed the House has done away with pork, in its fashion, in the 2014 budget, which it has passed on second reading.
“Any infrastructure line-itemed in the GAA and therefore determined before the GAA is approved and in accordance with the legislative process, this is not pork,” he said.
Asked why Congress did not want to make the abolition more permanent, Belmonte said: “Post-GAA determination by the legislator is verboten. Let’s look forward. I think everyone will get to accept it as a fact of life.”
The President, following his announcement of the “abolition” of the PDAF on Aug. 23, widely believed to be an attempt to head off the antipork Million People March at Manila’s Rizal Park on Aug. 26, directed Drilon and Belmonte to devise a “mechanism” by which PDAF could be itemized in the proposed P2.268-trillion 2014 budget.
Budget officials, however, said the total PDAF allocation in the 2014 budget would be retained, as this had been programmed for social services and infrastructure. The PDAF would only be totally scrapped in the 2015 budget, they said.
Last month, the House agreed to realign the P25.2-billion PDAF with the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Health, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Department of Public Works and Highways.
But lawmakers will still be allowed to refer beneficiaries of scholarships, medical assistance and other programs to the line departments. And they can still propose infrastructure projects but they have to identify them early for inclusion in the budget as a line item.
Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said lawmakers would still be able to exercise some form of control and discretion over the funds.
Policy statement only
Pressed to say categorically whether or not the PDAF had been scrapped, Valte said that when Mr. Aquino announced the pork barrel’s abolition last Aug. 23, he was making a “policy” statement “because, legally, PDAF is part of the GAA, which is a law.”
She said the President forthwith suspended the releases of PDAF in the 2013 budget but sought Congress’ support in deleting the item from the 2014 budget.
“When the President made that announcement, he was saying that we are going to work with Congress on how to go about this particularly because the abolition relies on the repeal or the noninclusion in the next year,” she said.
When he tasked Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to work with Congress leaders toward abolishing pork barrel, Mr. Aquino recognized that the “power to amend, to modify or to repeal a particular law belongs to Congress,” Valte said.
She also clarified that the executive department was seeking the lifting of the Supreme Court temporary restraining order (TRO) on PDAF releases in the 2013 budget and was working for its abolition in the 2014 budget.
“Let’s not mix these up,” she said, pointing out that Jardeleza was arguing for the partial lifting of PDAF releases for scholars and indigent patients in congressional districts.
While lecturing Jardeleza, Carpio said it was irreconcilable for Malacañang to seek the lifting of the TRO on the 2013 PDAF releases while claiming that the PDAF in the 2014 budget had been abolished.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said that it should be left to the high court to decide the abolition of the pork barrel by coming up with a ruling declaring it unconstitutional.
Sen. Ralph Recto, who said many senators had said they were for the abolition of the pork barrel, believed the best alternative to a complete abolition of pork was to enforce a purely line-item budget “as far as practicable.”
“More transparent, quicker implementation, easier monitoring and less discretion. Overall, a better budget,” he said.
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