Lacson: Lawmakers should not propose projects

Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Friday cautioned Malacañang against allowing lawmakers to directly propose projects for funding under the national budget, saying this would reinstate the illegal pork barrel system.

“Pork is pork no matter how they describe and hide its form. How can they justify the participation of the legislators in a purely executive function of preparing the National Expenditure Program or NEP, otherwise known as the President’s budget?” said Lacson.

His remarks were in response to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno’s statement on Thursday that lawmakers had been authorized to submit proposals for projects to be included in the Department of Budget and Management’s P3.35-trillion 2017 budget pitch to President Duterte.

Diokno had said the mechanism would not violate the Supreme Court’s ruling that invalidated the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel as the projects would be approved prior to the enactment of the national budget.

In contrast, PDAF was discretionary in that lawmakers had the leeway to dictate what projects he or she would like to fund out of their respective allotments.

But Lacson, who has long been watchful of discretionary fund practices in government, said the new tack made no difference.

He said it would bastardize the budget system, where the executive proposes, while the legislature examines prior to approval.

“Legislators submitting projects prior to submission of the President’s budget to Congress is tantamount to prostituting the whole budget process. It is also a malevolent way of going around the intent of the Supreme Court decision in declaring as unconstitutional the pork barrel system,” said Lacson.

He said he has not heard of any such call for proposals at the Senate, but he would be on the lookout and “expose” such practice if he finds it out.

Last year, Lacson expressed support for a suit filed by former national treasurer and now Education Secretary Leonor Briones and several labor and anticorruption groups before the high court questioning the discretionary funding mechanisms under the 2015 budget.

The high court nullified PDAF in 2013 after the P10-billion pork barrel fund scam was found out. This has led to the filing of graft, corruption and plunder cases against alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and several lawmakers.