Colmenares: Protests must continue vs pork barrel

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

ILOILO CITY – Pork is alive and people should not be deceived into complacency in the belief that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) has been abolished, according to Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares.

Colmenares, senior deputy minority leader, also called on the Supreme Court to reverse previous decisions upholding the legality of pork barrel and declare it unconstitutional.

“The public outcry against pork barrel and how it figures in corruption and patronage politics has been overwhelming,” said Colmenares.

“But protests must continue until it is totally trashed, especially discretionary funds under the Office of the President,” he said.

Discretionary funds are intact in the 2014 budget even if funds have been diverted to line agencies of the government, said Colmenares, who was in Iloilo City on Tuesday to speak on the pork barrel system.

He said legislators were still given the privilege to propose projects and identify the use of funds by agencies, including the Departments of Public Works and Highways, Health and Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

“Don’t be misled. It (pork barrel) is still alive and kicking,” he said.

Colmenares cited various discretionary funds under President Benigno Aquino III amounting to about P937 billion.

The Makabayan bloc in Congress, which includes Bayan Muna, filed in July House Bill No. 1535 abolishing the PDAF.