Understanding the Pork Barrel*

(and why it should be abolished)

*(with apologies to Prospero Nograles

and Edcel Lagman)

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 OUTLINE: Seven Questions

I. What is meant by “Pork Barrel”?

II. What can be gleaned from thesese
definitions?
III. How is the Pork Barrel Being Justified?
IV.What is the Real Reason Behind the Pork
Barrel’s Continued Existence?

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 OUTLINE: Seven Questions

V. What is the basis for the connection

between the pork barrel and corruption?
VI. Can the pork barrel be “reformed”?
VII. Assuming that it indeed can be made
corruption-free, can the pork barrel now
be justified?

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 I. What is “Pork Barrel”?

1.    From  Oxford  Dic/onary:    Noun,  North  American  informal

used in reference to the utilization of government funds
for projects designed to please voters or legislators and
win votes:

‘the   lesson   that   power   is   based   on   the   pork   barrel   and  
purchased  with  patronage’
2. Pork barrel is the appropriation of government spending
for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring
money to a representative's district.

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 More definitions

3. A government appropriation, bill, or policy

that supplies funds for local improvements
designed to ingratiate legislators with their
constituents.
4. The act of using government funds on local
projects that are primarily used to bring more
money to a specific representative’s district.
Basically, the politician tries to benefit his/her
constituents in order to maintain their support
and vote.
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 II. What can be gleaned from those
definitions?

1. That the pork barrel is a legislative

phenomenon
2. That the pork barrel makes no reference to
economic growth and development
3. That the PDAF certainly qualifies as pork
barrel; but abolishing the PDAF does not
necessarily abolish the pork barrel. It can
easily mutate into other forms/names:
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Mutations of Pork Barrel in the
Philippines

Mindanao Development Fund (P480 m) and Visayas

1989:
Development Fund (240 m)

1990: Countrywide Development Fund (P2.3 b)

2000: Priority Development Assistance Fund

to PDAF was added at some point the VILP (Various

2000 to 2010: Infrastructure including Local Projects) and the
Congressional Insertions (CI).

2009: PDAF (P10 b);VILP (P23b); CI (P50 b)

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Philippine Pork Barrel
Mutations
• Nota bene:
• 1989 Pork Barrel: P720 million
• 2009 Pork Barrel: P83 billion
• Between 1989 and 2009, consumer price index went up
about FOUR times. Pork barrel
increased ONE  HUNDRED  
AND  FIFTEEN  times.
• 2010  –  present:  Congressional Insertions abolished
(which for 2010 amounted to P64B); VILP folded in with
PDAF; more and “tighter” rules ;
• Pork barrel back to roughly P25 billion.
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 III. How is the Pork Barrel being
Justified?

1. “individual  members   of  Congress,  far   more  

than   the   President   and   their   congressional  
colleagues,   are   likely   to   be   knowledgeable  
about  the   needs   of   their  respecAve  consAtuents  
and  the  priority  to  be  given  each  project.”
–Comment:     But   the   local   development   councils,   in  
which  the  Congressperson  is  a  member,  already  has  a  
development   plan   and   investment   program,   which  
contains   a  master  list   of   projects  and  priori/es  of  the  
community.   Why   subs/tute   individual   wisdom   for  
collec/ve   wisdom   (par/cipatory   and   inclusive   to  
boot)?    
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Pork Barrel Justification

• BTW, Nograles and Lagman are quoting from

the SC decision re the CDF. But the SC
decision also says: “in   short,   the   proposals  
and  iden:fica:ons  made  by  the  members  of  
Congress  are  merely  recommendatory.”

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Justification of Pork Barrel (cont’d)

2. “   the  relaAvely  small   projects  implemented  under  the  

PDAF   complement   and   link   the   naAonal   development  
goals   to   the   countryside   and   grassroots   as   well   as   to  
depressed   areas   which   are   overlooked   by   central  
agencies  which  are  preoccupied  with  mega-­‐projects”
Comment:     It   may   be   true   that   the   central   agencies  
overlook   small   projects,   but   the   provincial   and  
municipal  and   barangay  agencies   certainly  don’t.    The  
pork   barrel   ignores   the   laMer     all   too   oNen.     For   the  
most   part,   they   are   not   men/oned   at   all   by   the  
member   of   Congress   as   having   influenced   his/her  
choice  of  projects.    

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 IV. What is the real reason for
the pork barrel’s continued
existence?

1. It is a means by which the executive can control

the legislature and bend it to his will (by releasing
or withholding the funds)
2. It is the means by which the legislator can assure
his victory (and/or that of his family) in elections.

Comment:  No/ce  that  these  are  benefits  which    
accrue   to   the   so-­‐called   servants   of   the   people,  
not   to   the   people   themselves.   In   short,   this   is  
CORRUPTION   (the   use   of   entrusted   power   for  
private  gain).
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 V. What is the basis for the
connection between the Pork
Barrel and Corruption?
• 1. In 1996 there was an expose of the corruption
surrounding the CDF, based on the testimony of
an unidentified whistleblower. He has just recently
been identified (upon his death) as then Marikina
Congressman Romeo Candazo of Marikina.
Candazo outlined the sharing scheme, between
congressmen and other government officials (from
19% to 52%) It was this expose that a) led to the
institution of “reforms” and b) the abolition of the
CDF (but the PDAF took its place).
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 The Pork Barrel and Corruption

• 2. Outrage over corruption in government in

2007 brought back the memories of the pork
barrel and corruption. This led to a stirring
defense of the pork barrel in early 2008 by
the newly elected House Speaker (Prospero
Nograles) and House Appropriations
Committee Chair (Edsel Lagman).

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Pork Barrel and Corruption

3. 3. And now the recently released COA

Special Audit on the PDAF and the VILP for
2007-2009. Main finding:
75 % of “soft” pork and a little over 1% of
the “hard” pork were found to be
“questionable” “improper” or “highly
irregular”

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Pork Barrel and Corruption

• Massive  corrupAon
– Pork Barrel Funds Appropriated, 2007-2009:

PDAF – P29b; VILP – P51b; Total – P80b
– Pork Barrel Funds Released , 2007-2009:

PDAF and other – P14b;
VILP – P102b; Total- P116 b
– Pork Barrel Funds Audited by COA (2007-2009):
PDAF and other –P8b; VILP -P33 b; Total – P41b
– Pork Barrel Funds use found to be improper or highly
irregular:
PDAF – 6 b; VILP – P.31b
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Pork Barrel and Corruption

• Irregularities, improprieties found:

a)
releases for projects identified by 74 legislators
exceeded their respective allocations
b) implementing agencies (IAs) used the funds
without due regard to existing rules and
regulations
c)
infrastructure projects found deficient
d)
infrastructure projects built on private lots
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Pork Barrel and Corruption

e) 70% of funds released improperly/illegally/

irregularly went to only 19 NGO, all seemingly of
dubious origin. The other 30% went to 63 other
NGOs.
f) NGOs were chosen without public bidding –
only on the basis of the purported endorsement
of sponsoring legislators
g) six NGOs were incorporated by legislators or
their relatives
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Pork Barrel and Corruption

h) Beneficiaries’ names corresponded to list of

passers in professional board exams.
i) Other supposed beneficiaries denied having
received any help
j) Suppliers without business permits, or
unknown.

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Famous Last Words

“since the advent of the CDF in 1990 and
the institution of the PDAF in 2000 up to the
present, there has been no post-audit report by
the Commission on Audit (COA) directly
associating any Member of Congress to a
serious abuse, misuse and/or infraction in the
utilization and implementation of the much-
maligned congressional funds.” Nograles,
Lagman, in “Understanding the Pork Barrel”
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 VI. Can the Pork Barrel be
“Reformed”?

• The proof of the pudding is in the eating: in

spite of the tightening and streamlining of the
pork barrel, the 2012 COA audit reports
show that “tuloy ang ligaya”.

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 VII: Assuming that it indeed can
be made corruption-free, can
the pork barrel now be justified?

NO. IT STILL SHOULD

BE ABOLISHED.
WHY?

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 A CORRUPTION-FREE, “REFORMED”
PORK BARREL SHOULD STILL BE
ABOLISHED. WHY?

• BECAUSE it is institutionalized dissipation of

public resources
• It embodies the “divide by N” syndrome,
defined as “the mechanical and feckless
dissipation of development funds across
localities rather than their rational allocation
to where these have the most impact”
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 The Effects of “Divide by N”:
(see Philippine Human
Development Report 2012-2013)

• 87 airports, most of which are within a 2-hour

ride from one another
• 140 seaports, 40 of which have little traffic
(another 72 were ordered in 2009, but contract
was rescinded by PNoy)
• 534 main and satellite campuses of state
universities and colleges alongside 93 LGU
colleges and universities and 1604 private
institutes, with faculties that are underqualified
Solita Collas-Monsod
with respect to graduate degrees
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 Divide by N

• Fragmentation of projects across space and

time
★ Bridges that lead to nowhere
★ Dirt roads interrupted occasionally by
concrete paving
★ Projects with little or no development
significance (waiting sheds, entrance and
exit arches, multipurpose pavements)
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 In SUM:

• Even  were   the  pork   barrel  projects  completely  

untainted   by   corrup/on,   even   if   it   was   not  
ins/tu/onalized   pilferage,   there   will   s/ll   be  
the   problem   of   inefficiency   and   waste   (e.g.,  
dispersion   vs.   integra/on,   projects   with   very  
liMle  developmental  impact,  projects  that  are  
duplica/ve   or   decisions   that   are   beMer   done  
by  exis/ng  agencies  )
Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics
 ABOLISH THE
PORK BARREL!

Solita Collas-Monsod
Professor Emerita
School of Economics