Osmeña: ‘Pork’ in budget legal; stealing it is illegal

ALL budgets have “pork” but how to spot it is another thing, Senator Serge Osmeña said on Thursday.

Osmeña said the proposed 2016 national budget still contained “pork barrel funds” despite a Supreme Court decision, declaring it unconstitutional.

“Yes there’s pork except that they have the narrowest definition of pork so they can say with a clear conscience, hindi, walang pork dyan,” he told reporters when asked if there was “pork” in the proposed budget next year.

“But yesterday pina-define ko kay Secretary Abad at sinabi niya (But yesterday, I asked Secretary Abad and he said) pork has been defined by the Supreme Court and it means that you have power over selecting the project even after the budget will have been approved. Post-approval discretion,” he said, referring to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

“No, that’s not the universal definition of pork. Pork is: ito yung budget, pinadala mo sa Congress, ako isang congressman o senator at may maglalagay ako dyan para sa distrito ko. Of course, it is our job to legislate and we can add new items in the budget that the entire body feels must be added. Pero ito para sa distrito ko lang,” said the senator.

(No, that’s not the universal definition of pork. Pork is, this the budget; you send it to Congress, and then I, a congressman or a senator, will allocate funds to my district. Of course, it is our job to legislate and we can add new items in the budget that the entire body feels must be added. But this is just for my district.)

Osmeña insisted that all budgets will not be without pork.

“From now long, until we’re dead and our great grandchildren, there will be pork. Otherwise we’ll never get anything through Congress,” he said.

But the senator said the “pork” in the budget was legal.

“It is legal pork. What is illegal is stealing. Yan ang talagang fraud, plunder, yung nangyari. It was the stealing of PDAF na labag sa batas (that really violates the law). It’s not because there was a PDAF, no, that’s not illegal,” he said, referring to the legislators’ priority development assistance fund also known as pork barrel.

But how can someone spot the “pork” in the budget? Osmeña said you will never know because that will not appear in the papers.

“You have to go more specifically kung paano nila ini-earmark yan. May internal earmarking na sila. Hindi mo alam e so ang nakasulat lang sa budget P100 billion for roads. (There’s) nothing wrong there pero internally P20 million dyan kay Serge yan, P20 milyon dyan kay Loren…,” he said.

(You have to go more specifically how they earmark it. They have an internal earmarking on that. You don’t know it because what’s only written in the budget is P100 billion for roads. There’s nothing wrong but internally, Serge has P20 million there, P20 million for Loren.)

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a lump sum, whether it’s contingent, it’s the internal allocation that makes the difference. Makikita mo dun (You’ll see there) if it was really for a valid purpose or it was done to please a congressman or senator,” he added. AC