No return of pork in 17th Congress, says Alvarez

Rep. Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

DAVAO Del Norte Rep. Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez denied reports that at least P80 million in pork barrel funds were itemized to lawmakers in the upcoming 17th Congress.

In a statement on Tuesday, Alvarez said lawmakers would only be allowed to propose projects for their districts and constituents under line items in the budget, and not lumpsum funds, which were more known as the now outlawed pork barrel.

Alvarez is seen to be elected Speaker of the 17th Congress.

“I never said that members of the House of Representatives ‘will be entitled to their usual district allocations’. The Supreme Court has already ruled against such lump sum allocations,” Alvarez said.

“What I said was that congressmen will be allowed to propose projects needed in their districts so they can be included in the line budgeting of the General Appropriations Act (GAA),” he added.

He made the statement after Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco in a radio interview Sunday claimed that some lawmakers were instructed to submit a list of their projects worth P80 million.

Tiangco denied, however, that this signaled the return of the pork barrel fund or the Priority Development Assistance Fund, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court following a scam allegedly led by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Alvarez said lawmakers may identify priority projects for funding because “the people go directly to us to tell us what projects are badly needed by their communities.”

“This is the reason why the framers of our Constitution made sure that budget-setting starts at the House… We congressmen are at ground zero, so to speak,” he said.

Alvarez said there is no truth to claims that every representative would be given his “due.”

“We in government cannot take or even consider a single centavo of taxpayers’ money as our due. Corruption has no place under this administration,” Alvarez said.