Davide asks senator to rechannel pork to Cebu

Amid the controversies hounding the pork barrel fund use by lawmakers, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III has asked Sen. Teofisto Guingona to rechannel some of his pork barrel to the Cebu provincial government.

Davide was referring to the P26 million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) that Guingona allocated but was not fully spent by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD).

In earlier interviews, Davide said he was not in favor of abolishing the pork barrel.

“The PDAF when used in a judicious way and in the hands of the right legislators is good,” Davide said.

Guingona’s office through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), initially released P20 million to DSWD-7 to fund projects under the Kapit-bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi CIDSS) Project in Cebu province last year.

The senator then allocated another P9 million for the same DSWD project last March.

But the DSWD-7 only spent P3 million of the P29-million allocation from the senator— P2 million was used to supply rice to indigenous families in Danao City and P1 million was used to help the oil spill victims in Cordova town.

Davide’s chief of staff Ramil Abing said the “pork” will instead be used by the provincial government for their own welfare programs.

Abing said Guingona’s office already agreed to rechannel the funds.

But the release of the funds is still pending after President Aquino’s order to suspend the use of all lawmakers’ PDAF in the wake of the alleged P10 billion pork barrel scam.

The Supreme Court also prohibited Congress from using all ‘pork barrel’ funds for the rest of the year while it hears three petitions against the PDAF.

“We will just wait and see if we can soon receive the funds. This was from Guingona’s PDAF last year so it might not be included,” Abing said

Kalahi CIDSS is one of the core anti-poverty projects of the DSWD since 2003.

The DSWD-7 said they received PDAF allocations from seven senators and 23 congressmen last year.

DSWD-7 Assistant Regional Director Nemia Antipala said 11 of the 23 legislators in the Lower House come from Central Visayas.

Among them were former Representatives . Cutie Del Mar and Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s north and south districts respectively, former Rep. Pablo Garcia of Cebu’s 2nd district, former Rep. Red Durano of Cebu’s 5th district, Rep. Benhur Salimbangon of Cebu’s 4th district, Rep. Luigi Quisumbing of Cebu’s 6th district and former congressman Arturo Radaza of Lapu-Lapu City.

For their part, the Kaabag sa Sugbo Foundation Inc., a network of Cebu-based development nongovernment organizations (NGOs) voiced outrage over the P10 billion pork barrel scandal, saying it has tainted the image of legitimate NGOs.

“We are angry and appalled that (Janet Lim) Napoles and her kind rode on the hard-earned credibility and social capital built over the years by social development NGOs to further their own interests,” they said.

Tessie Fernandez, executive director of the Lihok Pilipina Foundation Inc. a member of Kaabag sa Sugbo, said they welcome the ongoing investigation into the pork barrel scandal.

“Everyone of us may be guilty of this. We should be able to accept this in order for a clean up to take place,” Fernandez said.

She said they join the public in demanding that all those responsible be prosecuted.

The group also called for greater transparency, monitoring and decentralization of government services and compliance of NGOs to the government’s Seal of Good Housekeeping as a requirement to receive funding.

The group also said they will join next Sunday’s anti-pork barrel rally. With Reporter Joy Cherry S. Quito and Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita