Drilon: Scrap the pork barrel

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Franklin Drilon, who is being groomed to be the next Senate President, is proposing to scrap the pork barrel funds of congressmen and senators amid reports that some legislators have allegedly made available their pork to dummy nongovernment organizations for purported ghost projects.

“We should seriously think about abolishing the pork barrel,” Drilon told Radyo Inquirer 990AM in an interview Monday morning.

Drilon was reacting to the Philippine  Daily Inquirer’s report  linking  at least 28 legislators – five senators and  23 members of the House—to the alleged  scheme  hatched  by Janet “Jenny” Lim-Napoles.

After the expose, the senator  said there might  be a clamor to scrap the priority development and assistance fund (PDAF) otherwise known as pork barrel.

“Some of my colleagues do not avail of that but if we cannot abolish the pork barrel then we should at least institutionalize its use in terms of the recipient,” he said.

Scrapping the pork barrel was the ideal move but Drilon admitted that “in reality, many congressmen need this for projects in their districts.”

“Maybe we can pursue reforms to limit where they can use their pork barrel,” he further said.

Drilon then suggested to limit the use of “soft pork barrel” to district hospitals.

Such a move, he said, would lessen the possibility of the PDAF being used for anomalous transactions.

Drilon said though that his pork barrel had not been used for any irregular activities.

“I had no transactions with her,” said the senator, referring to  Lim-Napoles.

Originally posted 6:46 AM