What Went Before: Aquino’s ‘abolition’ of pork barrel

Days before the Aug. 26 Million People March that called for the scrapping of the corruption-plagued pork barrel system, President Aquino announced the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the official name of the pork barrel for congressional districts.

“Despite the reforms we have implemented, we have seen, as the events of the past weeks have shown, that greater change is necessary to fight against those who are determined to abuse the system. It is time to abolish the PDAF,” the President said on Aug. 23.

The Inquirer, a month earlier, published a series of reports on the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam that businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles was said to have carried out over the past 10 years with the collaboration of certain senators and congressmen using a network of bogus nongovernment organizations.

With the abolition of the PDAF, Aquino said the executive department and the legislature would devise a new mechanism to deal with the need of constituents “in a manner that is transparent, methodical and rational” and “not susceptible” to abuse.

However, the abolition of the PDAF will not take away from lawmakers the privilege of choosing projects and allocating funds for the development of those projects.

Aquino explained that legislators could identify and suggest projects for their respective districts, but these would have to go through the budgetary process. If approved, he said these projects would be earmarked as line items under the programs of the national government.

Critics feared the President would just rename the pork barrel just like what happened in previous administrations.

Before the pork barrel was called PDAF, it was known as Countryside Development Fund under the administration of President Fidel Ramos. The administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo then changed its name to PDAF after it had been analyzed in the press and exposed for what it truly was—a source of pork for her allies.

Lawyer Harry Roque said what President Aquino announced could only be a change in name. “To completely do away with the pork barrel, what [needs to be done is] to abolish all lump-sum appropriations,” Roque added.

During the plenary deliberations on the  proposed 2014 national budget in the House of Representatives last month, ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said that while the PDAF, the official name of the pork barrel, was no longer in the budget, the pork barrel was alive and well.

Tinio said the scheme in which lawmakers would be able to recommend that departments help their constituents would just politicize the delivery of social services, since legislators would still be able to exert influence on the use of the funds.

On Sept. 28, amid the public outrage over the pork barrel system, House members formally “removed” a total of P25.4 billion in PDAF from the P2.268-trillion national budget next year when they passed the budget bill on second reading.

They decided to scrap the PDAF and realign it to six government agencies. Under the system, a total of P25.2 billion in PDAF, plus Vice President Jejomar Binay’s P200-million pork barrel, will now go to education, healthcare, employment support, infrastructure and “assistance to persons in crisis.”—Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives