Ex-generals to Aquino: Give up your pork

Retired generals on Saturday said Malacañang should transfer to the National Treasury the Malampaya Fund and all other state funds spent at the discretion of the President, so their use could be monitored.

The pork barrel scandal that has held the public’s attention for three months now was also being discussed in military circles and the  consensus is to put all government accounts under the custody of the treasury, said retired Brig. Gen. Rosalino Alquiza, former president of the Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO).

“We have heard a lot of sentiments and positions [on the pork barrel]. I join the recommendation that the Malampaya Fund, the Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) fund and the PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) fund that go directly to the presidential fund … should be deposited in the National Treasury and be subjected to the budgetary process,” Alquiza told the Inquirer.

He said this should end the debate on the President’s pork barrel and the abolition of all forms of pork.

Officials of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAA), led by their chair, retired Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Reyes, graced the 115th Foundation Day parade of the PMA cadets in Fort Del Pilar, Baguio City.

Reyes made no reference to the pork barrel scandal in the speech he delivered at Borromeo Field.

But in an interview after the program, Reyes and members of the PMAAA board said Alquiza’s position was a common sentiment among the association’s members.

Reyes said the PMAAA wanted good governance to prevail over the anomalies that had surfaced.

He said the PMAAA had been following the debates since the Commission on Audit revealed that P10 billion from the pork barrel of legislators may have been stolen using fake nongovernment organizations linked to suspected scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

The fake NGOs were allowed to facilitate the projects selected and financed through the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel of more than 20 lawmakers.

The controversy soon included government expenditures financed by the Malampaya Fund, which represents the government’s share from the earnings of the natural gas project in Palawan.

Napoles’ NGOs allegedly accessed some of this fund, too, when Malacañang disbursed livelihood money for victims of Typhoon “Pepeng” in 2009.

Reyes said the PMAAA was not in a position to pass judgment on how the PDAF or the Malampaya Fund had been spent, but the retired generals believed that all government funds “must go through a clear process of checks and balances.”

Presidential Decree No. 910, issued by former President Ferdinand Marcos, allows the president access to the Malampaya Fund, which is to be used primarily for energy-related projects, Alquiza said.

But PD 910 should no longer be valid after the 1987 Constitution took effect, he said.

Alquiza said the PMAAA was also concerned about “this new mammal called the Disbursement Acceleration Program,” a policy employed by Malacañang to allocate savings to lawmakers which many believe was “used for patronage politics.”

Reyes said the PMAAA did not want the President to lose his flexibility to govern the country, but the solution to the pork barrel scandal would be to reduce the discretionary funds available to his office.