Local anti-pork barrel coalition to spark national campaign

Undaunted by the task of gathering 5.7 million signatures, a Cebu coalition is moving ahead with plans to stage a national summit on Nov. 9 to unite all protestors behind a “people’s initiative” to scrap the pork barrel.

“It’s going to be a tough fight. We know that,” said businessman Marc Canton of the Movement for a Livable Cebu, one of three convenors, who include a Cebu archdiocese official and a female election watchdog leader.

“We will need simultaneous actions across the country to capture 234 congressional districts,” Canton told Cebu Daily News about using the rare Constitutional remedy that allows citizens to initiate laws through a petition backed by signatures of at least 10 percent of registered voters.

“This will have to move like a military operation,” he said, but rely on volunteers acting selflessly for a “patriotic” cause.

The summit in Cebu City will invite anti-pork barrel representatives from civil society, the academe, business organizations, and interfaith groups from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

No venue has been set yet, as organizers look around for a “free” venue due to limited finances.

Particpants need to finalize the proposed law that citizens want to enact to ensure that Congress and the President will not be allowed to use the national budget for pork barrel funds.

Quoting American anthropologist Margaret Mead, Canton said the determination of a few, committed citizens “can change the world”.

“It won’t be any different here. Just watch us!” he said in a post in the coalition’s Facebook account.

The coalition gathers under one cause groups as diverse as the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Cursillo, Boy Scouts of the Philippines and the Kapatiran Party and Bayan- Central Visayas.

Canton clarified that the actual signature campaign has not started yet.

“We still have to polish and finetune the words of the proposition in the next 15 to 30 days,” he said after a draft text was released during a press conference at the Patria de Cebu on Wednesday.

Canton, Msgr. Rommel Kintanar and Marilu Chiongbian of the election watchdog C-Cimpel were identified as the three convenors of the new movement, which evolved from meetings following the Aug. 26 rally at Plaza Independencia and a follow up anti-pork barrel rally on Sept. 29.

RAINBOW

The rainbow of 70 Cebu groups from various persuations — left, right and center – has the support of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma and has drawn national attention.

Former Supreme Court Justice Reynato Puno, in a TV interview, said the Cebu initiative should tap “legal experts” to suggest the proposition to be endorsed and if it meets requirements, to be voted on in a referendum.

“Di po tama yon,” he said initially, when he heard reports about a signature campaign launched in Cebu. He worried that it was a premature activity.

Puno was not aware at that time, that the coalition had drafted a proposition with the help of lawyer Ernesto Francisco,who read the text at the press conference.

Nevertheless, Puno said the Cebu coalition should be supported.

“Dapat hindi negative ang attitude,” he said, “We have to help each other.”

He said the people’s inititative launched here “may be the source of a solution” to the pork barrel scandal.

Puno said the three remedies available — an act of Congress, the Supreme Court which is hearing petitions on the legality of the pork barrel, and a people’s initiative “can be done simultaneously” and that there was “no inconsistency” in pursuing one or all actions.

MOMENTUM

A day after the Cebu Coalition Against Pork Barrel announced it was launching a people’s initiative, a lawyers’ group in Manila and another businessmen’s group called up signifying their interest to join.

Canton, who said it wasn’t time yet to disclose their identities, said the Manila representatives said they advised their groups to join the Cebu initiative instead of coming up with their own actions.

“I’m actually surprised by the positive response. I can see the momentum,” he said.

The next step of the coalition is to produce primers about the pork barrel and embark on “massive education” of citizens.

Francisco, a Cebuano lawyer based in Manila, said congressmen and the President should not be allowed to make budget insertions or use public funds at their sole discretion through the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or other pork barrels.

“In our present system, only the legislators can decide where public funds will go. We’re looking at the idea of getting people involved in the decision making process. We’re trying to minimize the monopoly and establish transparency in the system,” he said.

“What we are saying is that the congressmen be only up to appropriations.”

Msgr. Kintanar of the Cebu Archdiocesan Discernment Group said the campaign will reach out to the 86 dioceses in the country.

The people’s initiative, he said, is way to voice out the people’s clamor for transformation.

“Let the blood of our heroes infuse us with renewed courage in standing for our rights and in standing for change,” Kintanar said./EILEEN G. MANGUBAT WITH REPORT FROM ADOR VINCENT MAYOL