More given, more expected

Despite the devastation experienced by both Bohol and Cebu provinces, some people may understand House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte’s reluctance for the Lower House to allocate some of its pork barrel for the two provinces.

He was being candid when he explained that the lawmakers have their own constituencies to care for and allocating all of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to the devastated provinces is not possible.

Unlike the Senate which has a national mandate, the Lower House has lawmakers assigned per district. Not even their individual P70 million pork barrels are sufficient to cover the needs of their areas.

Which is why Bohol and Cebu may realistically expect more than the P6 million donation the Senate proposed for them.

It’s a lot bigger than the P1 million raised by #Bangon SugBohol in last Sunday’s benefit concert in Cebu City but the Senate’s “generosity” would come from taxpayers’ money while the cash donations raised came from private citizens with real compassion.

It would be a welcome gesture, however if congressmen do stretch their pockets and spare some of their PDAF.

To say that all of the pork barrel is reserved for their district has a hollow ring to it after the P10-billion Napoles scam exposed the ease at which congressmen trade their PDAF’s for kickbacks and sham NGOs.

Just yesterday, Davao City showed that political boundaries are not an absolute limit for an act of “solidarity”.

He flew to Cebu to hand over a P5 million check for Cebu province and aims to donate P13.5 million for Bohol.

Still, with Congress deliberating on the pork barrel for next year’s budget and Senate President Franklin Drilon’s pledge to remove the Upper House’s pork barrel next year, the provinces of Bohol and Cebu will have to dig deeper within themselves to raise funds for rebuilding.

Or they could expect some help from Congress after all if Drilon’s statement that they can realign pork barrel funds to help the President augment the assistance given to Bohol and Cebu holds.

To be a sincere gesture of help, the aid should be allocated based on need.

There shoud be no more of this “my-ally-only” mindset to guide post-disaster relief.

President Aquino didn’t set a good example by appearing in the turfs of Liberal Party allies only in Cebu after the Oct. 15 earthquake, ignoring major damage in the Cebu City Medical Center just because the mayor wasn’t his “friend.” But he can make up for it in channeling aid fairly to repair infrastructure damage in Cebu and Bohol, without reference to party affiliation.