Solons deny inflating pork barrel

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmakers denied they were able to wring from Malacanang a P50-million increase in their so-called pork barrel.

Several legislative districts will, in fact, be getting an equitable allocation of P50 million, they said.

Some representatives get P70 million annually in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more than others.

Rep. Elpidio Barzaga (2nd District, Cavite) said most House members don’t have enough to cover for the needs of their respective districts.

He noted Reps. Danilo Ramon S. Fernandez (1st District, Laguna), Roman Romulo (Lone District, Pasig City) and Romero Quimbo (2nd District, Marikina City) even receive P5 million, P5 million and P1 million, respectively.

An equitable allocation was discussed during an all-member caucus on Friday afternoon.

The lawmakers, specifically the administration allies, allegedly threatened to delay the passing of the P1.64-trillion proposed budget for 2011 due to inequitable allotments in the PDAF. Thus, the Department of Budget and Management supposedly agreed to providing the congressional district an additional P50 million.

Rep. Janette L. Garin (1st District, Iloilo) agreed there was no discussion at all about increasing the PDAF allocations.

“The consensus was to allocate a minimum of P50-million per district, to be identified and implemented by the [Department of Public Works and Highways]. These include existing projects awaiting completion,” she added.

For his part, Rep. Cesar Sarmiento (Lone District, Catanduanes) explained the PDAF still remains at P70 million for some while the allocation for “those districts whose budget for road projects in the proposed GAA is lower than P50 million are increased to P50 million.”

“People would always put a bad connotation on the use of our so called pork barrel and demand for transparency on how it is spent. But what they do not know is that our constituents rely heavily on our allocations specially the soft projects. PDAF is not only focused on hard projects, it can be used in some other forms that would greatly benefit a lot of people in our districts,” Barzaga said.

He said the PDAF is also used for other projects such as school buildings, multi-purpose buildings, medical assistance, financial assistance for those who are in need, etc.

He stressed that lawmakers do not have any say on the release of the PDAF allocations.

A congressman is limited to identifying the priority projects in his district, he cited for example. The government agency where the PDAF budget was allocated will then get to implement the project, he explained.

Source: ABS-CBN news