P75-B Bangsamoro ‘pork’ questioned

MANILA, Philippines - Three congressmen are questioning a provision in the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) allocating P75 billion in annual taxpayers’ subsidy for the envisioned new autonomous Muslim region, saying the amount is a variation of the discredited pork barrel fund.

In a news forum yesterday, the lawmakers said the subsidy – the use of which would be under the sole discretion of the region’s chief minister and parliament – would be no different from the pork barrel which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in November 2013.

The congressional pork barrel was officially called the Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF.

“It will give the Bangsamoro region a lot more funds than other regions. It could run counter to the equal treatment, equal protection clause of the Constitution,” Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said, referring to the P75-billion allocation.

He said it is the planned new autonomous regional government that would determine how the huge sum would be used.

“And they are even proposing that it is their own audit body, not the Commission on Audit, that will audit the fund,” Nograles said.

Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat said aside from the Jan. 25 Mamasapano, Maguindanao carnage that left 44 policemen dead, the proposed P75-billion annual subsidy has gotten members of the House of Representatives from the Visayas and Luzon interested in the BBL draft.

He said his colleagues are now asking why taxes from their regions should be used as subsidy for the Bangsamoro regional government.

“This P75-billion grant will be an automatic appropriation. It will not pass through Congress. Its use will be determined solely by the chief minister and parliament of the Bangsamoro region,” he said.

He pointed out that unlike the old PDAF of senators and congressmen and internal revenue allotments (IRA) of local government units, the Bangsamoro subsidy “will not be subject to budgeting guidelines of the Department of Budget and Management.”

Marikina Rep. Romero Federico Quimbo, House ways and means committee chairman, said Congress should not grant the proposed subsidy “without safeguards against possible abuse.”

“Without reforms, resources will most likely end up being wasted like in the past. We don’t want that to happen,” he said.

However, Quimbo disagreed with his colleagues that the Bangsamoro region should not be allocated as big an amount as P75 billion.

“We are like a doctor here. You treat a part of the body that is sick, leaving the other parts untouched. We allot resources to areas where they are needed. We appropriated a big amount for areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda and no one complained,” he said.

He said other regions should not expect the same treatment as the planned Bangsamoro regional entity because of their different needs.