Vice Gov Lacson denies“pork for loan” rumors

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – There was no truth to the rumors insinuating that the P35-million fund given to Provincial Board members for their Special Project Allocation (SPA), also known as ‘pork barrel,” was in exchange for the PB approval of the loan request of Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr.

Negros Occidental Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson issued this denial to The Freeman in an interview last Thursday. “The governor never said that he will release the pork barrel to us then we will approve the loan,” he said.

The proposed loan, which was initially pegged at P180 million until it was reduced, was for the second phase of the NEGROS FIRST Cyber Center project.

The approval of the loan was stalled for more than a month, until Marañon, Lacson, and the PB members met Wednesday and finally agreed on the amount to be loaned from the bank.

However, both officials would not divulge to the media how much amount the loan was lowered, as part of it will now come from the unrestricted funds of the provincial government.

They only said the amount will be known next Wednesday, when the PB will eventually approve it.

On the same day of the meeting, Lacson told the PB members during their regular session that the PB will get P35 million for the pork barrel from the P198-million 20-percent Development Fund.

From the P35-million SPA, the vice governor will get P8 million, each of the 12 PB members will be given P2 million and the three ex-officio members of the PB gets P1 million each.

The three ex-officio members are the presidents of the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation, Association of Barangay Captains, and Philippine Councilors League.

Lacson said his P8-million share of the SPA was already released to him, adding that Marañon also planned to grant them additional SPA from the General Fund.

The release of the “pork barrel” has been a practice even of the previous administrations but (this year) the releases were temporarily stopped during the election season, Lacson explained.

The 20-percent Development Fund was approved only last June by the previous PB, he said.

“I am open to how my pork barrel is spent. Most of it goes to infrastructure projects. We use them based on the guidelines of the Departments of Budget and Management and the Interior and Local Government,” Lacson said. (FREEMAN)