THE Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (Ceap) wants those who misused the pork barrel funds punished, even as it allows that a further study needs to be done on this fund lawmakers use to subsidize their pet projects.
Speaking in the opening of the Ceap National Convention at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel yesterday, Fr. Joel Tabora SJ, chairman of the Ceap’s advocacy commission, said a study on the use of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of senators and congressmen and how intertwined it is with corruption should be made.
He admitted Ceap member schools have accepted money from the PDAF in the form of scholarship grants from lawmakers. “A study has to be made whether the PDAF as an institution is intrinsically corrupt and has to be abolished,” said Tabora who is president of Ateneo de Davao University. “Personally, I believe we have to abolish it,” Tabora added.
He said that there is no problem with legislators giving money to the poor but, “what is evil, the money which is supposed to go to the poor goes to the pockets of the congressmen. The money which is supposedly for the farmers fund the luxurious lifestyle of the lawmakers.”
He said that the legislators should concentrate on their job as lawmakers and desist from acting as patrons.