Osmeña's pork taken from local gov't funds - Gotcha

When will authorities act -- when it's all too late?

Rich and poor squatters from Fairview and Lagro, Quezon City, are invading La Mesa Dam, cutting down trees, erecting poultry and pig pens, and spoiling Metro Manila's water supply. The Ayala and Lopez water firms can't do anything because the concessions given by the Metro-politan Waterworks and Sewerage System limits them only to filtration plants.

Dam security is supposed to be an MWSS responsibility. But for some strange reason, it pulled out its dam guards upon privatization of water distribution.

The most applauded portion of Joseph Estrada's first State of the Nation was his promise to end congressional pork. He broke it months later when LAMP partymates cajoled him into handing out morsels that they supposedly need to promote his Erap Para sa Mahirap program.

Sure, Estrada did not include the hated Countrywide Development Fund and Public Works Fund in the first budget he submitted to Congress for 1999. But when legislators pestered him for money, he granted what he felt was a harmless form of the equally hated Congressional Initiatives Allocations. He told them to submit lists of pet projects, but warned them not to include basketball courts or waiting sheds. He thought that by tying down senators and congressmen to administration priorities -- houses, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals -- he could curb their appetite for pork.

He was wrong. The partymates used fair means and foul to wangle from Budget Secretary Ben Diokno scarce funds from poor tax and customs collections. Some got more; the majority got less. All wasted the pork on petty projects from which they got as much as 60-percent kickbacks.

Having tasted blood, er, fat, LAMP legislators want not just morsels from the 2000 budget but a hefty P42 billion. Although they expect even worse revenue collections this year, they restored the CDF with a new name, Priority Development Assistance Fund, and awarded themselves P7.1 billion under it. They also restored the PWF with two new names, "local infrastructure projects" and "other national projects," and blocked off P6.1 billion and P1.1 billion, respectively, from the Department of Public Works and Highways budget.

The initial P14.3 billion are lump sums, that is, no specific projects are identified, contrary to Executive Sec. Ronnie Zamora's promise that the Estrada administration will implement line-item budgeting. Under the scheme, each congressman will get P50 million; each senator, P175 million -- no questions asked.

That's not all. Legislators cut P10 billion from the Internal Revenue Allotment that provinces, cities and towns should automatically get from tax collections in their locales. It violated the Local Government Code and Tax Code. But they argued that local officials should pitch in their share in the cut of P22 billion from the original budget proposal to keep the deficit within the International Monetary Fund's desired P62 billion.

They pulled a fast one, though. After taking P10 billion from local governments, legislators increased DPWH's budget by P8.9 billion, from P43.5 billion to P52.4 billion. The new P8.9 billion was again billed as "lump sum" -- virtually a third form of the old PWF. From it, senators will share an additional P5 billion; congressmen, P3.9 billion.

There's more. LAMP members further grabbed P18.7 billion from the budgets of the education, health and agriculture departments. They marked certain items as "to be identified and implemented upon prior consultation or concurrence with the respective members of Congress." This means that erection of new schools, hospitals and grains silos, hiring of teachers and health workers, and boosting of crop harvests can only be done if the senator or congressman from the locale approves it. Such approval attaches to itself even more kickbacks.

The new, improved Estrada has said he will veto the P42-billion congressional pork on Monday. Expectedly, Senate President Pro Tempore John Osmeña will work on Estrada before then. He will use every trick in the book, including horse-trading and reminding Estrada of next year's mid-term elections, to prevent a veto. Osmeña has the biggest stake in the 2000 budget. As head of the Senate's finance (budget) committee, he stands to get P6 billion in pork -- one-seventh of the P42 billion.

INTERACTION. Cesar M. de los Reyes, compass.com: "Senate Pres. Blas Ople lost no time declaring SEC's Perfecto Yasay a blackmailer for exposing Erap's attempts to clear Dante Tan. But he declared Ronnie Puno, whom the Ombudsman charged with graft, innocent unless proven guilty."

Cesar, do you know the song, "That's What Friends Are For"?

Celeste Diaz, the.net: "How much does Mayor Lito Atienza spend to get every little accomplishment publicized, and for frequent out-of-town conferences with his so-called Cabinet?"

Fred Lim would want to know, Celeste.

Fabian P. Santos, San Simon, Pampanga: "Sa oras na nagsalita ang mga hipokrito-politiko, sila ay nagsisinungaling; sa oras na nangako ang mga hipokrito-politiko ay kanilang sinisira; sa oras na pinagkatiwalaan ang mga hipokrito-politiko, sila'y nagtataksil."

Hindi ka galit, ano, Fabian?

Thank you, Rep. Nereus Acosta, Antonyo Sandecos, Bernie Cruz Mendoza of Bacolod, Victor A. Tan of South Cotabato, Boyet Paglicawan, Manny Leno of yahoo.com, Nilo Orocio of Florida, Sweet Mendoza of mailcity.com, R. Anonuevo, Joselu Legarda, Olos of aol.com, Marilyn of balut.admu.edu, Mon Sagullo, B. Simpao, F4echo of pinoymail.com.

The Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf thanks its donors: Vice President Gloria Macapagal, Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo, Nova Management Corp., Cybersoft Inc., Ayala Land Inc., BP Mata and Co. Inc., Unlimited Promotions Inc., BCD Pinpoint Marketing Inc., MediCard Phils. Inc., First Gemphil Inc.

YOUR BODY. Smokers may be getting twice the amount of tar and nicotine from low-tar cigarettes than previously thought, says a study in the latest issue of the U.S. Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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