Diokno: No pork in proposed 2017 budget, but…

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Monday receives the proposed P3.35 trillion national budget for 2017 from Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno. Photo by Marc Jayson Cayabyab, INQUIRER.net

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Monday denied reports that each lawmaker will be given P80 million worth of projects in the proposed P3.35 trillion national budget for 2017, but said lawmakers are free to request for funding of their pet projects.

During an open forum after the turn-over of the proposed budget at the House of Representatives, Diokno said outright that there is no pork barrel in the first budget proposal of the Duterte administration.

It was Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco who claimed in a radio interview that solons were instructed to submit a list of their projects worth P80 million.

READ: No return of pork in 17th Congress, says Alvarez 

This was similar to the grant of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel fund, a congressional lump sum fund scrapped by the Supreme Court after it was abused or misused by some legislators.

“The infrastructure allocation would not be based on per congressman and senator… Those are rumors but they are not true. There is no PDAF in this budget. Let’s put it that way,” Diokno said.

Though there is no pork barrel in the budget, representatives may request for projects based on the needs of their constituents, Diokno said.

“It is the right of a congressman to request for what’s good for their constituents… Between, for example, a district engineer and a congressman, I would rather give the congressman the right to request and identify some projects. The district engineer is not elected, the congressman is elected. It’s just proper to give them credit when they request,” Diokno said.

He said there is no “hard and fast rule” regarding the requests of lawmakers for pet projects to be funded by the present administration.

“There is no hard and fast rule. Congressmen would identify P100 million worth of projects but they are not eligible… Somebody identifies projects which are worthwhile, consistent with the desire of the President for the development of the countryside, we will of course consider,” Diokno added. JE/rga