ANGELES CITY – Pampanga has not been spared of the “taint of corruption” rising from the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.
For one, the principal character in the latest scandal rocking government had found herself – her name at least – splashed on a streamer in Candaba town, put up by the new mayor for his inauguration.
Then, there were the farmers and fisherfolk of Guagua, Macabebe, Masantol and San Luis denying their inclusion in the recipients’ list of special funds coming amounting to P7.5 million per town from Palawan’s Malampaya Project coursed through “bogus” non-governmental organizations associated with the JLN Foundations of Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam.
The NGOs were identified as Gintong Pangkabuhayan and Kaupdanan Para sa Mangunguma.
“The mother lode of corruption in government,” said Ruperto Cruz, chair of the broad-based advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement, of the congressional pork barrel, officially named priority development assistance fund.
This, even as his group joined calls for its “immediate and total scrapping.”
“The pork barrel is like the honey that attracts the bees, the single motivating factor for a number of characters to seek congressional posts, the driving force for many partylists to enter the political field,” Cruz said.
To Cruz, the creation of new congressional districts “is also rooted in the pork barrel system,” explaining that “politicians in provinces would have more sources of largesse.” This in turn, he said, “perpetuates the politics of patronage.”
“Scrapping the pork barrel would cleanse the houses of congress of these characters and there shall remain only those dedicated to serve, knowing full well that their main function is legislation not project implementation,” he added.
The pork barrel funds should revert to the national treasury to fund government projects, and the delivery of basic services, especially in the depressed communities, Cruz said.
“Think how much can be saved from the pork barrel and how many more roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, can be built out of it,” Cruz noted.
A report said the national government can save P60 billion annually with the abolition of the pork barrel allocation. A senator has an allocation of P200 million each year, while the congressmen and the party-list are given of P70 million each yearly.
