STAND UP, SIGN UP!

DECLARATION OF UNITY OF THE PEOPLES CONGRESS

(Draft 12 August 2014)

We, the Peoples Congress for a Peoples Initiative to Abolish the Pork Barrel System, convened on 23
August 2014 in Cebu City, do solemnly declare our commitment to end the pork barrel system in this
country and exact accountability for the plunder of the peoples money through such a system.
More than a year since the exposure of the P10 billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF)
scam, and despite the Supreme Court rulings on the PDAF and the Disbursement Acceleration Program
(DAP), the pork barrel system remains intact in the national budget and entrenched in the political
system. Only select members of the opposition and their alleged cohorts are being prosecuted for pork-
related crimes.
Meanwhile, Congress has created a new mechanism for doling out pork via lump sum funds tucked into
the budgets of departments and agencies under the President.
Malacaangs 2015 National Expenditure Program (NEP) retains hundreds of billions of lump-sum,
discretionary funds otherwise known as the presidential pork barrel. These monies represent the most
powerful form of patronage politics. The NEP also proposes a redefinition of savings in a bid to
circumvent the High Courts ruling on the unconstitutionality of the DAP.
Our elected officials have not only failed to promote the peoples interests; they have betrayed the
public trust by in perpetuating the pork barrel system.
It is time for the people to take matters into their hands and abolish the pork barrel system themselves.
Today we formally launch the proposed Peoples Initiative bill -- An Act Abolishing the Pork Barrel
System. Under the Philippine Constitution, the power to enact laws is no longer exclusively vested in
Congress. The sovereign people can directly exercise the power to legislate under Republic Act No. 6735,
which provides for a system of initiative and referendum.
The Peoples Initiative bill abolishes all forms of pork barrel, mandates line item budgeting, prohibits and
criminalizes allocation and use of lump sum discretionary funds and penalizes violators with six years
and one day to ten years imprisonment and disqualification from holding public office.
This initiative aims to rid the nation of a corrupt system of patronage that undermines the principles of
separation of powers, checks and balance, transparency and accountability.
Once approved by the people in a referendum, the Act Abolishing Pork Barrel can only be amended and
repealed via the peoples initiative and referendum and cannot be amended or repealed by Congress.
We aim to collect within a year the signatures of 10 per cent of registered votersequivalent to about 6
millionand at least 3 per cent of the registered voters of every legislative district as required by law.
To accomplish this daunting task, we will undertake a massive information and education campaign
nationwide. We will also continue to reach out and forge unities with all forces, groups and individuals
to build the broadest possible unity for this Peoples Initiative.
We know we are up against entrenched and well-organized forces currently holding the reins of political
power. We are also faced with the lack of resources as well as the inertia and cynicism that attend any
attempt at meaningful change in the unjust status quo.
But we will persevere and inevitably triumph against all adversity for we know this fight to abolish the
abominable pork barrel system -- is the peoples fight. #