In a country that has seen the worst kinds of corruption, dictatorships, massacres and the worst scandals including the infamous Davao Death Squads, all acts, however holy or sacrosanct, will surely been seen with suspicion.
Thus, an instruction issued incoming President has caused a suspicious uproar in the political lobbies with some quarters claiming that the Pork barrel fund, which had been set aside by the Supreme Court of the Philippines, is making a comeback in another garb.
It is stated that the earlier Pork barrel fund has not only made comeback, it has done so with an increment, it is alleged by the detractors; with an increase of P10 million, the enhanced amount which will be given to each member of the Congress, will stand at P80 million as proposed by the new government, it is alleged.
The authenticity of this sensational news is yet to be verified though, according to the information received, each first-time member to the House of Representatives would get an allocation of P 30 million for soft projects while the amount that will be given to them for the hard projects would be to the tune of P50 million.
It may be remembered that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), which was referred to as the Pork Barrel fund, was provided to the lawmakers in respect to the projects in their area.
The Congressmen were given sufficient discretionary powers in the spending of the funds for the soft projects for most of the welfare schemes including the following purposes:
- For the State Universities and Colleges,
- The department of Health and related works,
- Social Welfare and development works,
- Labor and employment,
- Scholarships,
- For the treatment and hospitalizations,
- Livelihood and related training programs,
- Commissions of Higher Education / Technical Education, and
- Skills development.
The hard projects cover the infrastructure building works such as:
- Basketball courts,
- Waiting sheds for the public to take shelter during rain, harsh sunlight and other purposes, and
- Farm to market roads etc.
The discretion to spend on the soft projects lies solely with the lawmakers for which they are provided P 30 million each.
It is clarified that, even before the Duterte government took oath, the fresh lawmakers were asked to provide a list of their soft projects before June 30; for the hard projects the last date of submission of their lists was first July. The proposals for the hard projects were to be submitted to the respective departments of Education, Public Works, and Highways.
Under the previous Aquino government, the administration had come up with an alternative scheme which was similar to the PDAF; it was called the Disbursement Acceleration Program; it was a budgeting scheme that was quite similar to its predecessor.
Even though there is a lot of whispering doing the rounds, there has not been any confirmation about the details or the authenticity of this allegation; and, whether the Duterte government is really contemplating re-introducing the old quashed scheme, is yet to be known.
The Supreme Court steps in
But, in its judgement dated 19th November 2013 the Supreme Court of the Philippines quashed the practice of allocations of funds under the PDAF and DAP declaring them unconstitutional.
Actually, there is no proper provision for providing funds to the Congressmen and Senators but the governments had made their own amendments to the legislations in this regard and started distributing the cash; they amended the Malampaya Fund and the President’s Social Fund to provide for the people’s representatives to spend the money as they wished.
There was some arbitrariness in the way it was done, but nobody objected.
In its verdict given on that day, the Supreme Court declared these two amendments invalid and ordered that the payments under PDAF and DAP be discontinued with immediate effect; it stated that these funds were being utilized for purposes beyond the mandate for the funds.
The Supreme Court was unanimous in its verdict which it passed by 14 – 0 with one Associate Justice not allowed to vote since his son happened to be a Congressman at that time.
The release of the money from the Malampaya Fund was since it was meant for Energy projects and related activities; the vital phrase that the lawmakers had incorporated in the provisions of the Malampaya Fund and the President’s Social Funds which were meant for other purposes.
This clause was objected to by the Honorable Court and Presidential Decree #910 was set aside.
Umrao Singh umraoz.wordpress.com
Written for: Lars-Magnus Carlsson www.thephilippinepride.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
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