More senators give up ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines - Sixteen of the 24 senators have moved for the deletion of their shares in the P26-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) under the proposed 2014 budget. 

They are Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Cynthia Villar, Serge Osmeña IV, Loren Legarda, Juan Edgardo Angara, Francis Escudero, Grace Poe, Aquilino  Pimentel III, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Vicente Sotto III, Nancy Binay, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Gregorio Honasan, Teofisto Guingona III, JV Ejercito and Senate President Franklin Drilon.

This translates to about P3 billion in PDAF. 

Drilon spearheaded the campaign to abolish the PDAF allocations of senators under the proposed 2014 budget.

The 15 senators beat the deadline yesterday set by the Senate finance committee in making good their public promise not to avail of their pork barrel allocations for next year.

Santiago also proposed that the combined pork barrel allocations for senators and congressmen be placed under the executive department’s calamity fund.  

If approved, the proposed P7.5 billion in the President’s calamity fund will be increased to P32.5 billion. 

Santiago also wanted some P200 million to be placed in the President’s contingency funds.

“This is to provide the President additional flexibility in executing the budget,” she said. 

Santiago also pushed for the deletion of the entire section on the Social Housing Finance Corporation, citing duplication of the proposed body’s functions with the National Housing Authority. 

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. have not submitted their formal positions regarding their PDAF allocations for next year.  

Enrile, Estrada and Revilla are facing a plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman in view of the alleged pork barrel fund misused based on a special government audit from 2007 to 2009.  

Sotto and Legarda, on the other hand, said they are waiving their pork barrel allocations for the remaining years of their terms as senators.  

Sotto’s term ends in 2016 but he is still eligible for re-election, while Legarda’s term ends in 2019. 

Legarda said she had formally informed Drilon of her decision as early as Oct. 21. 

“I just want to focus on the good we can do for the people, not toxic politics,” Legarda said when asked why she decided to forgo her PDAF entirely in the next five years of her last term as senator. 

Legarda said she would rather focus on her advocacy in reaching out to more Filipinos and the world about the need to learn to be resilient in times of disaster, especially at the height of the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas. 

Marcos, for his part, said he is forgoing his PDAF allocation for 2014 to reiterate “my consistent position from the very start for the abolition of the PDAF.”  

“I hope this will put an end to the suspicion that I have misused my allocation,” he added. 

Osmeña said he is not availing of his total of P400 million in allocations for this year and 2014, noting that he has been pushing for the abolition of pork barrel as early as 1996.

Osmeña said that during the plenary voting on the proposed 1997 national budget, he took the floor and expressed his belief that the “pork barrel is nothing but a blank check that is given to certain people for political purposes or to expand their political base.”