SAY NO TO PORK

Le chon, adobo, steak: these are varieties of pork dishes we love. But
there are people who love pork that is different from the ones we love. They
are craving for the so called pork barrel.
What is pork barrel?
According to Wikipedia, The Philippine Development Assistance Fund
popularly known as pork barrel is the appropriation of government spending
for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a
representative's district. Its main purpose is to fund or help the community
that are beyond the reach of the national programs.
But last July 12, 2013, the Philippine Daily Inquirer exposed the P10
billion pork barrel scam. Involved in this scam are government officials
mostly senators and congressmen and the businesswoman named Janet
Napoles. This led to the call of abolishing the pork barrel.
But does abolishing the pork barrel is the solution to this problem?
Majority of the Filipino people benefited from the pork barrel. Through
the pork barrel children are able to continue college, the sick are admitted to
the hospital for free, there are infrastructures built, and there are livelihood
training to generate income to the family.
When the pork barrel is abolished, in what way would the government
continue to address the need of the people?
It is proposed that the money from the president instead to be given in
a form of pork barrel is to be directly given to the Local Government Unit or
to the mayors. But how sure are they that this money wont be corrupted?
The main problem here is not the pork barrel but the people and the
kind of system we have in our government. It is the corruption that we must
solve.
The solution to all these problems that we are suffering is the complete
elimination of corruption. It can be done if we change our government
system into a more transparent one. But we must not leave everything to the
government; we must also take our part. We, the citizens of this country
have the greatest role in resolving corruption. And it can be done by
eradicating little corruptions within ourselves like corrupting answers through
cheating and corrupting the truth by lying. The complete abolition of

corruption must start within us. If we do this, we can influence others. And
those people weve influenced also change other people. Then there will
come a time that the Philippines will be free from corruption.
So, let us start abolishing corruption now!