Lawmaker urges House to probe pork barrel fund mess

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. Photo from congress.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines – Alarmed by the alleged P10 billion pork barrel scam, Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez on Monday said he would file a resolution for a congressional inquiry into the supposed decade-long misuse of the funds.

“The House of Representatives should investigate,” he told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has backed the National Bureau of Investigation’s investigation on the involvement of 28 lawmakers in the scam but Rodriguez maintained that they should look into the issue since “the integrity of the PDAF (priority development assistance fund) is being questioned.”

Rodriguez said he was optimistic this would be backed by Belmonte.

Marikina City Representative Miro Quimbo agreed that the House of Representatives had to look into the supposed misuse of their PDAF.

He said that the upcoming budget deliberation would provide the House of Representatives with the venue to discuss the pork barrel scam.

He defended the House leadership in terms of PDAF use, maintaining that Belmonte and Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad have made “great strides… in curtailing possible areas of abuse by coming up with a very limited menu for PDAF utilization and ensuring the strict adherence to these.”

But while there were moves to scrutinize the alleged PDAF scam, there were also moves to get rid of the pork barrel itself.

Senator Franklin Drilon told Radyo Inquirer 990AM that he was for the scrapping of the PDAF.

ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio said he is going to file a measure which would put an end to the lawmakers’ pork barrel once and for all.

“This P10-billion PDAF scam makes the notorious P700 million fertilizer fund scandal during the Arroyo administration look like petty thievery,” he said.

But putting an end to the pork barrel drew mixed observations from several lawmakers.

Quimbo and Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat Jr. took Belmonte’s side in saying that the PDAF was necessary for congressmen to extend assistance to their constituents.

Moves to abolish the pork barrel would be unpopular to members of the House, Baguilat said.

The pork barrel funds lawmakers’ medical assistance and scholarship grants, he said.

“It is also an equalizer because when the national priorities miss out on a certain district, a congressman can use the PDAF to address a funding gap,” the Ifugao lawmaker said.

Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco, secretary general of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), said that abolishing the PDAF would not solve the problem.

“Even the good projects would suffer. I don’t know, this may be unsolicited advice but President Aquino should direct his Cabinet officials to launch a full-blown inquiry,” he told INQUIRER.net.

The important question now was how bogus NGOs were able to slip past the scrutiny of state agencies, said Tiangco.