Sign campaign vs pork on target, says solon

SENIOR citizens, during a rally in Manila, sign the people’s initiative to enact a law criminalizing the use of pork barrel funds in whatever form they take. RAFFY LERMA

NAGA CITY—Proponents of a people’s campaign to bypass Congress and Malacañang to craft a law making it a criminal act to use or create pork barrel in any form are closing in on their target of gathering at least 5.2 million signatures, according to one of the campaign’s leaders.

Rep. Neri Colmenares of the party-list group Bayan Muna said the proponents were confident that the required number of signatures for the people’s initiative would be reached by February or March next year.

The 5.2 million signatures represent 10 percent of 52 million registered voters in the country, a requirement for a people-initiated law to move ahead.

Colmenares was here on Thursday for the launch of the signature campaign at Bicol State Colleges of Applied Sciences and Technology.

63 and counting

He said Camarines Sur was the 63rd out of 82 provinces in the Philippines that had been reached by the signature campaign.

“Even with just 75 provinces (out of the 82) it (the bill) can already stand on its own,” Colmenares said.

He said the campaign was “historic as outside of rallies and forums, there is something concrete to look forward to.”

Colmenares said that for a long time, the fight against pork barrel had been characterized by protest rallies, “but now with the people’s initiative, something concrete is being done that would result in the creation of a law.”

“This is a historic campaign. This is the first time in history that there is a people’s campaign against pork barrel,” he said.

Colmenares said that while other forms of corruption persist, the pork barrel system is the single biggest source of patronage and graft, “which is why it has to be abolished.”

The law being crafted through the people’s initiative, according to Colmenares, would abolish all forms of pork, be it lump-sum appropriations in the President’s budget or allocations for legislators’ projects.

The people-initiated law, he said, would mandate line-item budgeting, which means all funds listed on the budget should be matched with specific projects.

The proposed penalties are still light, though. Colmenares said that under the people-initiated law being crafted, violators face prison terms of six to 10 years and perpetual disqualification from public office.

PH distinction

“There are no other countries that give pork barrel to congressmen,” Colmenares said.

“We are the only country that does that. Creation of projects like infrastructure is not a task for congressmen so there is no need for them to be given funds for projects,” he said.

The people-initiated draft of the law would be submitted to a referendum before taking effect. The 1987 Constitution allows a people’s initiative campaign to amend the Constitution or pass new laws.

The plunder of pork barrel funds was exposed when a witness, Benhur Luy, revealed the systematic theft of funds allotted to legislators through ghost projects and forgery in a scheme carried out by wheeler dealer Janet Lim-Napoles and her legislator conspirators. Shiena M. Barrameda, Inquirer Southern Luzon