President Benigno Aquino III INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei—At the end of the day, President Aquino said that he merely wanted to be “fair” to all Filipinos, whether living in far-flung areas or in urban centers, when dealing with the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
While he acknowledged that there was misuse by some lawmakers of their pork barrel allocations, Aquino said that there are also Filipinos in need of the PDAF, from which district representatives receive funding for infrastructure and social service projects.
“Remove P25 billion from the budget? Did anybody give an answer on what do I do with the scholars? I don’t know if that’s accurate, but there are 340,000 scholars. What do I tell the scholars?” the President asked.
At the rally in Makati City on Oct. 4, participants accused Aquino of failing to listen to their call for the total abolition of the PDAF and instead realigning it to government agencies that provide healthcare, education and infrastructure, among others.
“The 3,000 people said I’m not listening to them?” Aquino said, referring to the estimated crowd that gathered on Ayala Avenue on Oct. 4.
The President stressed he was not getting into a fight with those behind the scrap pork movement, adding that when he started out in Congress he also had the same belief about the PDAF.
“But can we demonstrate? Let’s go to the province, preferably Tagalog-speaking, let’s go to the market. You choose the province and the barangay (village). I will give you the day so we can schedule it. Let’s ask: Do you need it here or not? And I think nine out of 10 will say: ‘If not for that we won’t have this foot path going to the poblacion. We won’t have this street. We won’t have this school,’” Aquino said in Filipino.
He noted the stark difference in the situation of people in the urban centers who would demand that their city mayor fix the potholes in their streets and get no reply.
“So I am just trying to be fair,” the President said.
“I think there is a resource that can be gotten when you have people who are involved in local politics who would know the actual people who are of need, the actual sitios (settlements) who are of need, then their voices also have to be heard too. We are Filipinos regardless of where we came from—an urban center or in the most rural areas—we are entitled to the same services,” Aquino said.
The President said he already sounded like a broken record on his answers about the pork barrel issue.
“The idea that they can identify projects for those who should be helped, it’s not inherently bad. What is clear is, there were those who abused it,” Aquino said.
He added that he had instructed Budget Secretary Butch Abad to look into how his administration could continue funding projects that were initially dependent on the PDAF without violating the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court.
“If there are savings elsewhere, then we can fund these needs that are still existing that cannot be suspended,” the President said.