Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano: Just explain. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Executive Department has pork barrel in the proposed P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget, but not lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Friday.
“In terms of having lump sums and the Executive can still dictate where to put these, there’s pork barrel. In other countries, they don’t call lump sums for the President pork. But it’s a matter of semantics,” he told reporters.
“So if in your minds pork is any lump sum and anyone has discretion, the Executive and Secretaries have pork,” he added.
Apart from allocations for the salary of personnel, lump sums in the budget are the P2 billion contingency fund; P1 billion e-government fund; P20 billion rehabilitation and reconstruction program fund; P90 billion miscellaneous personnel benefits fund, and P127 billion pension and gratuity fund.
Sen. Francis Escudero, finance committee chair, also wondered why there was so much fuss over lump sums when the Senate introduced provisions requiring agencies to submit details of projects before lump sums could be released.
In contrast, senators and congressional representatives have no discretion over which project money would be allocated, unlike in the past, Cayetano said.
“It’s a pork-less budget for legislators,” he said. “Legislators don’t have a say after the budget is enacted.”
In a privilege speech last Monday, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago railed against some P37.3 billion pork barrel tucked in the budgets of the departments of public works, health, social welfare and labor, and the Commission on Higher Education.
But Senate President Franklin Drilon and Escudero said they could not trace the P37.3 billion.
The Senate passed the budget measure on Wednesday night, paving the way for a bicameral conference committee with the House of Representatives to reconcile their versions.
Cayetano said he disagreed with Santiago’s contention that consultation with lawmakers to identify projects reeked of pork barrel practice.
“We were just asked to give amendments then we were told it could be in small or big amounts but no guarantee that these would be adopted,” he said. “But that’s part of their job.”
Consultation with legislators was par for the course since it’s the job of legislators to craft and pass laws, he said.
“Mere consultations with legislators is not pork barrel because it’s the job of legislators to pass laws. The legislator doesn’t need to follow everything that the Secretary says and vice versa,” he said.