FILE PHOTO: Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.(Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — To prevent pork insertions in the budget, lawmakers should first plan and consult with stakeholders and implementing agencies about pet projects they want to be funded by taxpayer money, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.
The Partido Reporma standard-bearer said the country could no longer afford to keep wasting hundreds of billions of pesos in unused or unspent funds in the budget due to pork-related corruption.
“Projects should go through thorough planning and consultation. Even if a project is ‘inserted’ into the National Expenditure Program (NEP), there is nothing wrong so long as it underwent the proper consultations,” Lacson said in a radio interview.
Known as the Senate’s resident pork hunter, the senator has flagged billions of pesos in questionable projects during his yearly scrutiny of the national budget.
‘No commissions’
Lacson earlier said an average of P300 billion a year in the budget from 2011 to 2020 went unused because projects inserted by some lawmakers did not undergo proper planning or consultation.
Many of these projects were declared “for later release” by the Department of Budget and Management, subject to vetting and the submission of documentary requirements, angering senators and House members who introduced them.
Lacson said that while lawmakers had the right to amend the NEP—the budget proposal submitted by the executive branch to Congress—by inserting their projects, there should be no “commissions” involved.
“It’s the right of lawmakers to propose amendments to the NEP. What is bad is that some use their earmarks to get commissions up to 40 percent. That is the part that is unacceptable,” he said.
“That’s why from 2011 to 2020, an average of P300 billion a year in the budget went unused—all because of the insertions by some lawmakers. How can agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways implement the projects if they were not consulted?” he added.
Lacson said this was all made worse by the fact that most Filipinos were still mired in poverty.
“This practice of commissions is abhorrent. Filipinos are mired in poverty, yet billions of pesos that should go to development projects end up in the pockets of some,” he said. INQ