Pork wars

There is really nothing new in the controversy triggered by whistleblower Benhur K. Luy’s expose that corrupt lawmakers and his relative Janet Lim Napoles (JLN) gobbled up P10 billion in pork barrel funds over the last 10 years.

Before Luy gave detailed information about the collusion of lawmakers and his aunt JLN, said to run a network of bogus nongovernment organizations that served as a funnel for the public funds, we have heard that more than one-half of pork allocation goes to the pockets of corrupt congressmen and senators through kickbacks and fat commissions.

The difference is that based on Luy’s account, the connivance between public officials and the underworld has become very systematic, making it easy for the delivery of ghost projects, indicating that corrupt lawmakers are no longer content with getting hefty pork slices but want to eat up everything.

Since the 1990s when then President Ramos raised pork barrel allocations from P12.5 million to P50 million, there has been a strident call to scrap the funds. When Joseph Estrada became president in 1998, he raised it to P70 million for congressmen and P200 million for senators even if he vowed to abolish the system during the campaign period.

People have lost hope in changing the system because they know that past Presidents, from Ramos to Erap and Gloria Arroyo, did not have the moral ascendancy to institute reforms.

During the Arroyo administration, we saw how pork funds became a tool to shield the former president from Congress’ moves to impeach her. Because she was continuously under siege from 2002 to 2007, many of her allies in the Lower House became so bold that they even pressured the Executive to allow Congress to withdraw P3 billion from the budget of the Agriculture Department supposedly to finance agricultural projects in the district.

Even the present administration is not spared from criticism that it is using the pork barrel system to either cajole or discipline Congress to support administration programs. Recall the legislative vote with respect to the passing into law of the contentious Reproductive Health bill.

On the other hand, it is misleading to say that congressmen receive only P70 million and senators P200 million a year in pork funds because they have also access to additional allocation from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

This is made possible through the so-called Congressional Initiative Allocation or CIAs, which provide P35 million a year for each congressman and P100 million per senator for their public works projects. Actually, some DPWH officials had denounced the pork barrel system because lawmakers have practically cornered and politicized the infrastructure funds.

How will President Benigno Aquino III respond to demands to abolish the system?

The answer is, for as long as he holds on to his own discretionary fund, lawmakers will not give up their pork.

P-Noy is set to air today his State of the Nation Address or Sona and it is unlikely he will come up with a clear program to erase the pork barrel system.

The nuances of governance require the Executive to continually seek the support of the legislative and political reality could be summed up in the saying, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”

However, P-Noy can no longer steer clear of the pork wars. Morever, he is not exactly powerless in pushing for reforms in the system.

Two days from now, the Cooperative Development Authority will hold the Mindanao Sustainable Agriculture and Cooperative Marketing Forum in Cagayan de Oro City.

The Mindanao-wide conference will bring together advocates of sustainable agriculture who are into the manufacture of organic fertilizer, as well as production and marketing of organically-grown products.

In case Congress does not know, tension grips the agricultural sector because the trade bloc agreement called the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean Free Trade Area or Afta is set to end in 2015.

The impact of Afta’s expiry would open the floodgates to cheap agricultural commodities from Asean countries. Suffice it to say that the impact is grave and deleterious to the economy and life threatening to the agricultural sector.

Thus, the aim of the Mindanao-wide meet is to “advance advocacy for a paradigm shift, from conventional to sustainable agriculture and to advance cooperative marketing”.

Towards this end, cooperatives in Mindanao are set to band together and adopt a “Solidarity Economy,” to cushion if not counteract the adverse effects of commodification. The program will be hammered by 500 agricultural co-op leaders throughout Mindanao, with inputs from allies coming from apex groups in Asia and the Pacific.

I hope the President has this issue in his Sona menu because the agricultural sector is practically in the intensive care unit and urgently needs some blood transfusion.

For lack of space, let me advance the view that pork barrel funds should be utilized to finance farm assistance programs, especially those under the guidance of agricultural cooperatives because they have a solid track record in social development and they work closely with government financing institutions.