Lawmakers dared to reveal how ‘pork’ was spent

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/RYAN LEAGOGO

MANILA, Philippines –  Senator  Francis  “Chiz” Escudero  on Wednesday dared fellow legislators to reveal  how they spent every single centavo of their priority development assistance fund (PDAF) or “pork barrel”.

“This is a challenge to my fellow legislators: reveal how you spent public funds. We owe it to our constituents, we owe it to our taxpayers,” Escudero said in a statement.

He made the call amid ongoing controversies surrounding the use of lawmakers’ PDAF.

“Whether it’s PDAF, pork barrel or DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) is immaterial. The important issues here are transparency and accountability,” he said.

“At the end of the day, as public officials entrusted with public funds, we should be able to explain to the public how these were disbursed and used,” said  Escudero, who initiated a Senate investigation into the P10 billion “pork barrel” scam.

Since he started availing of the special budget for legislators’ pet projects in 2010, Escudero said he has posted on his website (www.chizescudero.com) the detailed allocation of his PDAF to local government units (LGUs) across the country. The senator did not receive any PDAF during the Arroyo administration.

He said all the allocations he received under the PDAF had been properly accounted for and open to scrutiny by the Commission on Audit (COA) and the public.

“All releases and disbursements to LGUs which had sought my assistance were transparent and verifiable. These can be scrutinized by COA and the public anytime,” said the senator.

Escudero also took the opportunity  to clarify the P96 million (not P99 million as earlier reported) he had requested the Department of Budget and Management to download to local LGUs for repairs of specialty hospitals and construction of public markets.

The whole P96 million released by the DBM through its DAP, he said,  covered the project funding requests that went directly to LGUs in the cities and municipalities of Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Cavite, Rizal, Ilocos Norte and Pangasinan, among others, mostly for infrastructure projects and medical help.

Escudero said majority of the LGUs received P500,000 each for the construction and rehabilitation of their public markets.

Since he started using his PDAF in 2010, he said he had only funded infrastructure projects and medical assistance through various LGUs, as well as improvement of regional and specialty hospitals.
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