Enrile joins call for pork abolition

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile on Friday joined calls for the total scrapping of the priority development assistance fund (PDAF)  or  “pork barrel” as well as the lump sum appropriations of all government agencies.

“If it must be scrapped, the pork barrel system should be scraped totally. We should not only look at scrapping the PDAF but include the various ‘pork barrel’ or lump sum appropriations of all departments of government the General Appropriations Act (GAA) as well,” Enrile said at a press conference in the Senate.

A special audit conducted by the Commission on Audit from 2007 to 2009 showed that P6.2 billion pork barrel funds had been transferred to questionable non-government organizations (NGOs).

Of the  P6.2 billion, P332.7 million allegedly came from Enrile’s PDAF,  P413.29 million from Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.;  P191.58 million from Senator  Jinggoy Estrada; and  P14.55 million from  Senator Gregorio Honasan.

“I am ready to be investigated and prosecuted if anyone can prove that I financially benefited from the unscrupulous and illegal schemes of criminal syndicates, whether masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles or her ilk and cohorts in and out of government,” he said.

Enrile, however, disputed the COA report, saying it was “distorted and misleading.”

He also said that the amount of more than P325 million attributed to him were actually from several senators, who asked for his endorsements when he was still the Senate president.

Those who asked for his endorsements, he said, were incumbent Senators Francis Escudero (P20 million), Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada (P50 million, Manuel Lapid ((P42 million) , Loren Legarda ((P33 million), and Miriam Defensor-Santiago (P50 million);  former Senators Rodolfo Biazon (P20 million ) and Mar Roxas ((P20 million); and  congressmen-members of the Commission on Appointments (P90 million).

“If you subtract these amounts from what appears to be my PDAF, then you will see what really happened, the above legislators merely asked for my endorsement as then senate president,” Enrile pointed out.