Joke and Dagger

Title: Year of the Pork Barrel

2019 is the Year of the Pork Barrel.

Struck down by the Supreme Court in the case of Belgica v. Executive Secretary, lump sum
discretionary funds - more commonly known as “pork barrel” funds - have made a fantastic comeback
in the proposed 2019 General Appropriations Bill now pending before Congress. The amounts being
floated today range from P60 million to a whooping P5 BILLION for a legislative district.

Imagine that. 5 BILLION pesos for a legislative district. What project is that? Flying jeepneys that are
warp-speed capable?

Senator Panfilo Lacson, who to his credit has been a longtime opponent of the pork barrel practice,
has openly asked President Duterte to veto all pork barrel items in the 2019 General Appropriations
bill once presented to him for his signature. With all due respect Senator Lacson, everyone knows that
Duterte won’t do that. How else is he supposed to keep the House loyal to him? By *gasp* being a
good leader? Pshaw.

The silence of other notable oppositionist Senators and Congressional candidates is quite damning.
This is an easy-pickings corruption issue. Legislators have no business having pet projects that are
neither needed nor wanted by their constituents. Legislators have no business telling the executive
agencies what projects should be executed and where.

(Aside: That was the whole point of bottom-up budgeting, in that the constituents had greater input
and insight into the local projects that would be funded. But of course the corrupt don’t want that,
because God forbid that public funds be used for the benefit of the public.)

Honestly, readers, this is infuriating. It hasn’t even been more than six years from the time we called
on the Aquino government to abolish PDAF. We had a huge gathering over it. I was there, in a frickin
wheelchair of all things.

And we succeeded. Aquino backed down and removed PDAF from subsequent appropriation laws.
(Yes, he did it days before the actual protest - which just highlights how huge a deal the protest was.)
There was even a Supreme Court case over it, as mentioned earlier in this column. The Supreme Court
struck pork barrel down. Unconstitutional, the justices said.

We shouldn’t have to remind our own government that this practice is unconstitutional. We shouldn’t
have to constantly look over their shoulders to see if they’re upholding their oath of office. And we
shouldn’t have to ask the President to exercise his power of veto, especially since the draft of the
appropriations bill originated from his office anyway.

But here we are.

Quick shoutout to my peeps from the Million People March: what’s good ya’ll? We’re so quiet about
this issue. I get it, lots of your support Duterte and all. But I supported Aquino too, and I still went to
Luneta that day in August 2013, to tell him that pork barrel was unacceptable. Surely, expecting the
same level of commitment to the cause from you is fair?

As of this publication, Congress will have three more days to pass the 2019 General Appropriations bill
before they adjourn for elections. Maybe it’s too late for this General Appropriations bill. But that
shouldn’t stop us from calling this out for what it is: blatant, out-and-out corruption. And under a
regime that claimed to have been all about eradicating corruption, no less.