House eyes remaining half of pork barrel for Visayas rehabilitation

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The leaders of the House of Representatives are planning to use the remaining half of their pork barrel this year to bankroll the massive rehabilitation efforts in the calamity-stricken Visayas region.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. was optimistic that a majority of the House members would agree to  deploy the frozen half of the P24.79 billion 2013 Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) depending on how the Supreme Court (SC) ruled on cases seeking to declare the pork barrel system unconstitutional.

“I and several members of the House are willing to give up their remaining 2013 PDAF. We are still trying to study the matter in view of the TRO (temporary restraining order) issued by the High Court last August,” said Belmonte in a text message.

The release of PDAF has been on hold for the last three months after several groups that filed separate cases seeking the abolition of pork barrel obtained a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court on the disbursement of the balance of the 2013 pork. Some lawmakers have opposed the abolition of their pork, claiming that thousands of their constituents depended on these funds for their education and health requirements.

But spurred by public outrage over the P10 billion pork barrel scam, the House of Representatives has already scrapped the PDAF in the proposed P2.268 trillion 2014 budget it passed a few months ago as the equivalent amount of roughly P25 billion was spread out into budget items handpicked by the lawmakers themselves in several agencies, mostly under the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Senator Ralph Recto had already proposed the use of the frozen pork for calamity funds a month ago, a few days after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Central Visayas.

Belmonte said that the least representatives could do to help victims of typhoon “Yolanda” would be to contribute a minimum of P10,000 of their monthly income. Belmonte said that the House leaders would hold a special meeting on Monday (November 11), or a week before they resume sessions,  to discuss how the House could contribute to easing the plight of the typhoon victims.

Aside from financial contributions, Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate has called for a temporary suspension of fighting Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New People’s Army in Leyte and Samar provinces following the wide swath of devastation left by typhoon “Yolanda.”

In a statement, Zarate said: “I am  calling on the Aquino administration and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to respectively consider declaring suspension of military operations and ceasefire in all the regions devastated by Yolanda to facilitate the unhampered relief, retrieval and clearing operations being conducted by government, non-government organizations (NGOs) and other private relief groups.”

The Leyte and Samar provinces are among the main bases of operation of leftist rebels in the country.

Zarate has likewise appealed to Bayan Muna  members from the different regions to gather and send relief goods materials to the Yolanda-devastated areas.

“I am requesting our members to donate and gather relief goods and send it to the nearest Bayan Muna or Makabayan Headquarters in their respective areas,” Zarate  said.

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