Responsibility, not privilege

Filipinos across the country have ventilated their sentiments on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and it is unequivocal; they want their government to abolish it now, not 2015 as the Department of Budget announced in recent days.

The announcement was in a way understandable; there were line items and appropriations worked on in this year’s budget which cannot be removed now and lawmakers are also finalizing next year’s budget as well.

If the legislators in Congress are so moved by the public clamor to abolish the pork barrel, they have three months to do it. They also have three months to heed President Aquino’s mandate to revise the pork barrel system into one that’s responsive, transparent and accountable to the people.

Can Congress which has benefitted from the largesse handed to them by the Palace, be willing to immediately abolish said pork barrel overnight? Unless there’s mass civil unrest, the likelihood of that happening is about as remote as the Philippines being awarded the privilege of hosting the next Olympics.

Organizers of the mass protest are realistic enough to recognize this fact as they called on the public to sustain the momentum of yesterday’s protest in order to pressure their lawmakers to give in.

They also reiterated that the protest is not aimed at President Aquino but at the pork barrel setup which had benefited not only him—he is the biggest beneficiary after all—but the lawmakers who have vigorously opposed and justified the retention of their PDAF.

In lieu of abolishing the pork barrel, how does one dispense of the millions, nay billions of pesos worth of funds without legal, transparent procedures?

Even the most hardcore critic of the pork barrel system would have to admit that a system should be in place to dispense of these funds for their intended beneficiaries.

The government is not Santa Claus nor a giant charitable institution in which Filipinos are reduced to indigents lining up to receive money and materials. The power to dispense these funds should be guarded zealously and should be shielded from corruption from all sectors.

There was a suggestion to create a giant committee comprised of the government, private sector and the Church to identify, monitor and approve the allocation of these funds.

Tied up with the demand to abolish the pork barrel was the long delayed petition to approve the Freedom of Information Act that will open the books of government to practically every transaction they have approved or are working on.

Whatever the proposals may be, the fact remains that the dispensation and allocation of taxpayers’ money should not be used as a privilege by public officials to enrich themselves, but a responsibility to to preserve the country’s existence by serving the people.