Aquino keeping his pork, says Palace

Malacañang deputy spokesperon Abigail Valte: Very strict process. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Sorry, but President Aquino is keeping his own pork barrel.

Aquino has a lot of uses for the President’s Social Fund (PSF), said Abigail Valte, Malacañang’s deputy spokesperon.

The PSF is a source of assistance for the families of soldiers, policemen or government personnel killed in the line of duty, and its distribution is transparent, she said.

“That is from their perspective,” Valte said in response to a call from the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives to the President to scrap his pork barrel in the 2014 budget. “But as far as the President is concerned, the use of the PSF undergoes a very strict process.”

In January 2012, the President instructed Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to release P5 million from the PSF, which comes from revenues of the state Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., for the Environmental Heroes’ Foundation, which was put up for the benefit of families of martyrs of the environment.

In 2010, during the Arroyo administration, the Commission on Audit observed that more than P1.2 billion from the PSF was transferred to various NGOs and government agencies, and irregularly recorded as donations, making it difficult to establish accountability for the money.