Legit NGOs suffering pork scam backlash

MANILA, Philippines - The Filipina advocate who recently won international awards for her volunteer work has decried the negative notions about non-government organizations (NGOs), a sector that suffered backlash from the pork barrel scam.

Alexandra Eduque, who recently bagged the International Fundraising Conference Choice and the Outstanding Volunteer awards, lamented that NGOs are suffering bad reputation owing to the issue.

“I have a lot of friends who are also advocates and who are suffering. It’s not fair to be suffering from this when you are (a legitimate NGO that) is really doing something,” Eduque said in a recent interview.

“That’s the sad reality of things. When one makes mistakes everyone else suffers,” she added.

Eduque, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, admitted that their fund-raising efforts have been affected by the pork barrel controversy.

She said prospective donors are asking more questions about the activities that the NGOs are involved with.

“Now, (prospective donors will ask): NGO? Isn’t that corrupt? You have to explain that it’s not the case (for all groups),” the 23-year old volunteer said.

“Instead of spending 30 minutes to meet a donor, it becomes one and a half hour because the rest of the 45 minutes will be spent explaining that it’s a worthy a worthy cause,” she added.

Eduque said the pork barrel scandal would not discourage Habitat for Humanity volunteers from pursuing its advocacy. The group aims to construct decent shelters for the poor to promote their dignity.

“All of a sudden, all these NGOs have been generalized and stigmatized,” Eduque said.

“If people only knew how painstaking it is to raise funds for a worthy cause.”

The pork barrel scandal involved the alleged channeling by lawmakers of priority development assistance (PDAF) funds to bogus NGOs and questionable projects.

Before lawmakers decided to scrap the PDAF in the 2014 budget, each senator received P200 million worth of “pork” while each member of the House of Representatives got P70 million per year.

Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles has been accused by her  relative and former employee Benhur Luy of being the brain of the scandal.

Some lawmakers have been accused of endorsing the fund releases to phony NGOs that are connected with Napoles.

Plunder cases have been filed against Napoles and lawmakers who were implicated in the scam.