Tax evasion should not be a criminal offense anymore in the Philippines. After all, some of the country’s public servants, those who blatantly steal taxpayers’ money, do not get prosecuted or go to jail. It is even quite baffling how members of Congress made a big deal out of former Chief Justice Renato Corona’s undeclared personal dollar savings in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) considering quite a number of those who impeached him were said to have been involved in scams using their priority development assistance (PDAF) or “pork barrel” funds through bogus NGOs for years even before Corona’s impeachment trial began in 2012. These scams involved billions of pesos of other people’s money — sums that utterly dwarf what Corona had in his own bank account.
Did he mislead the public?
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Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino has been in office since 2010. However, he and his minions will have you believe that he just started his term yesterday with the way he keeps blaming the previous administration for the problems his own administration is facing today. His announcement that he will abolish the pork barrel funds wasn’t entirely true. It seems he made the announcement to pacify the public and stop them from attending the massive rally against the pork barrel funds.
On the government’s website, the current administration published a diagram or what they call an “infographic” of what the government will do after they “abolish” the PDAF or pork barrel funds. It cleverly stressed how the “old system”, which is the same system BS Aquino’s government has been using since being voted into office, was prone to abuse. The diagram alleged that the pdaf or pork barrel funds was prone to abuse because of the following:
1. A former President desperate to hold on to power.
2. Congressmen immersed in the culture of transactionalism.
3. A bureaucracy coopted and coerced.
4. Lack of transparency in the system.
5. A passive and disengaged citizenry.
It looks like BS Aquino is blaming everyone else except himself for endemic corruption in the Philippines. The big question is this:
How come BS Aquino did not speak out against the “old system” when he was still in Congress?
Just to reiterate, the old system is the same system BS Aquino has been using up until his recent announcement that it is time to abolish the pork barrel funds. It is also worth pointing out that after repeatedly saying that he was against abolishing the pork barrel funds, BS Aquino made an about face three days before the scheduled million people march against the pork barrel on the 26th of August and announced that it was time to abolish it. For that reason, the old system, the system that is prone to abuse, existed even during BS Aquino’s term. He only felt compelled to change to a “new system”, which he says is more transparent after the public outrage. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people who fail to see through the hypocrisy in BS Aquino’s actions, which is why things will not improve under his regime.
What is also interesting to note from the government’s diagram on PDAF or pork is that even though it says that it will be abolished, the new system they are proposing still provides an opportunity for legislators to include budgets for specific “projects”.
In other words, even though legislators won’t be getting their lump sum amounts, which was Php70 million per congressman and Php200 million per Senator, they will still get funds for their pet projects this year, it’s just not called the PDAF or pork anymore. Therefore, it will not have been abolished at all. Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda confirmed this:
(…) President was clear about the abolition of the PDAF in the 2014 budget. But that only meant that the lump-sum appropriation for the PDAF “is no longer there.”
This “new system” means that there is still a possibility for the Executive branch, which is headed by BS Aquino, to use public funds to strong-arm members of Congress into doing what he wants them to do.
He now wants legislators to have pork.
The Secretary’s reason for keeping the budget allocated for PDAF or pork barrel funds is not acceptable. He said “it was not logical to wipe out any trace of the P25.2 billion PDAF from next year’s budget” only because “the amount had been proposed”. His is a lame excuse, indeed.
Since the 2014 budget hasn’t been approved and is still scheduled for deliberation by Congress, Secretary Abad can still revise it and scrap the allocation for the PDAF. It should be easy enough since he said so himself that the budget could be diverted to something else – something more substantial, hopefully other than the construction of more basketball courts and waiting sheds. There’s no reason the funds have to go through legislators to implement “small projects” anyway.
There is really nothing in the Constitution that says legislators have to be involved in “projects” for their districts or constituents. Secretary Abad’s only defense when asked why legislators need funds is that they are constitutionally-mandated to scrutinize the budget. But what he said doesn’t really justify why they need to have funds too. As Manuel L. Quezon III mentioned in his blog, according to the Constitution, Congress is only obliged to act on proposed budget by the executive branch by deliberating on it. And, they can only subtract items from it, and not add to it (Art. VI, Sec. 25, I). This means that Congress also has the power to remove the PDAF from the national budget during their deliberation if they want to and even when Secretary Abad can’t be bothered to change his budget proposal.
Before changing his tune, Malacañang Spokesman Edwin Lacierda even challenged the legislators to give up their pork:
“That is the call of each and every solon,” said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda. “Senator Panfilo Lacson did it. Is it something that is worth emulating? That is the call of each and every legislator.”
Lacierda said it was also up to Congress to decide on the fate of the P27 billion in Priority Development Assistance Funds or PDAF in the proposed 2014 national budget.
‘CoA gets 2% commission on pork.’
Senate President Franklin Drilon was also quoted as saying that it is easy to abolish the pork barrel. This was what he said before he changed his position and went against its abolition:
“For his part, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon pointed out that the controversial pork barrel funds given to members of the Senate through the years could disappear from the General Appropriations Act (GAA or national budget) by simply deleting the PDAF appropriations from the budget.”
It’s a real mystery why some people like Drilon who were quoted in the past as being okay with removing the pork barrel funds are now justifying the need for Congress to have funds for their pet projects. It’s either they are suffering some kind of premature withdrawal symptoms or someone must have convinced them to rally for the retention of the pork barrel funds. That someone could be trying to hold on to power. It’s really hard to trust Filipino public servants especially when they keep contradicting their own statements.
So, the next time the Bureau of Internal Revenue gives out a list of names of tax evaders; don’t regard them as criminals or cheats. They are just protecting their hard-earned money from being stolen by members of Congress.
In life, things are not always what they seem.
The philippines is a corrupt system propagated and protected by a multi-headed hydra of hypocricy, deceit, greed, and self-interest.
In a survey (inquirer) 98% of respondents said – “abolish pork barrel”
Nothing could be clearer, but the reasons, lame excuses for its retention already demonstrate that it will not be abolished and corruption will continue unabated.
The chance for systemic change is rare and it has been offered on a silver platter, but pnoy does not have the courage or honesty, and will instead defend his paymasters rather than listen to his ‘bosses’. He is a sh!t whose effigy should be strung up from a lamp-post on roxas avenue before estrada removes them.
Janet lim napoles is clearly just one of the fixers for politicians who keep themselves arms length from justice, but if she has 500 bank accounts, 30 cars, 28 houses, billions in savings (500 million in saf alone), then a lot of children have gone hungry, and died due to lack of hospital care to pay for such excessive greed ( nice of de lima to leave her 3 yachts out of the seized assets so napoles could sail into the sunset – the hydra protecting its own)
A lot of shameless politicians have blood on their hands and clearly possess neither integrity, decency, nor any sense of shame, and pnoy and malacanan are as guilty as any, if not more so as the ‘executives in charge’, but who obviously have no concept of responsibility and accountability.
The senators who judged Corona were more guilty because they have stolen billions from peoples monies, which those billions could have feed millions of hungry school children, can make thousands of houses for the poor squatters who are living in a flood prone areas and along stereos , thousands of school buildings, millions of books, can finance livelihood projects to alleviate the economic conditions of the many who are reeling in abject poverty. What kind of congress that we have? Are they likened to Pharisee during Christ time, pretending to be honest, religious, without blemished were as dirty as those lepers during that time also.
YES, exactly like that.
Traitors to their own people. Treasonous leeches and you stand there and do nothing!
@DEMOSTHENES P. MAGLASANG
Noynoy supporters will keep denying that.
@Libertas
It seems Malacanang has mobilised their minions to campaign for the retention of pork barrel funds. So-called “opinion-makers” in various media outlets are publishing articles supporting its existence.
You know, there is not one single person in the National Government who is not in on this, not one.
Each and every one of them is a lying thieving weasel.(Congress, the Judiciary, Executive Branch)
The Constitution of the country protects them from public scrutiny as all that needs to be done is to convert peso’s to $$$$ and NO ONE can see their accounts. The FoI law is nowhere to be seen and thus the minutes of the proceedings where it is determined who gets what are not availed to the citizenry. and yet….
it has been ‘proposed’ that one needs to show ‘PROOF’ as if that could be done in the absolute complete absence of any law to compel any of them show the people what is in their accounts. Or where the money is going.
So does anyone really need to have it PROVED to them that the ‘officials’ in the country are plundering everything that is available to them? The fact that people kill each other during elections just to get in to the ‘Congress’ is because they want to serve the people???? Does anyone really believe that shit???
I think some do, most in fact, why else would needing proof that people do not believe that the people in the government are stealing everything that is not nailed down? They are all laughing at the people, the arrogance of it all is perhaps the most in-nervating part of the whole charade.
IF you give someone $10,000 and that person tells you that they will be back in 30 minutes with your receipt, would you want to admit that you had just been robbed? by a two-bit con-artist? So I now understand that is one reason why so many people in the country think their gov’t. is honest, it hurts too much to admit you’ve been had, I finally understand…allelujiah!
libertas, do you think you can change the corrupt system if you sit now as the president?
only if i delegated the task to ilda
Choi, as funny as libertas reply was. All that matters is there is one guy “just one guy who laid down his life for you and I” who promised the Filipino people in 2010 he will abolish poverty and corruption. The Filipino people upheld their part of the bargain, though stupidly in my opinion. Aquino previously did not even demonstrate the ability to change a tire. Let alone a dysfunctional way of life. But people believed him and look where that got us. Nothing good can come from yellow fever. Nothing.
Our problem is our electorate is dysfunctional itself so election does not work but a revolution is what is required led from the right like what Ferdinand Marcos did when he was president of our republic.
Congressmen are saying pdaf must be kept for scholarships!
Why do congressmen even decide who should get a scholarship
Who audits this, or is this another easy way of diverting funds through ‘ghost students’
10 million bounty for janet lim napoles.
calling Dog the Bounty Hunter
or does this just mean she has already had a burial at sea
Maybe Pork is also funding that bounty…
@benign0
I found an anomaly in page 11 of the Philippine Star dated August 28, 2013. Edwin Lacierda mirrored what you said in your article “What next after the august 26 million people march to Luneta versus the pork barrel?” Dated August 26, 2013 by benign0. Is the following plagiarism? “What made the system prone to abuse? Number one you’ve got a former president desperate to hold on to power. You’ve got congressmen immersed in a culture of transactionalism, a bureaucracy co-opted and coerced, a lack of transparency in the system, and a passive and disengaged citizenry,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing Monday.
He did word it all differently though…
Hmm, bounty you say?
Darth BS gonna call Baboy Fatt. 😛
hmmmm..burial at sea. I was thinking along those lines when they reported that Napoles went into hiding. Barya lang ang 10B pesos compared to what they are geting anyway.
Am holding a pig roast this weekend.
Politicians welcome.
Why does the tax paying citizenry want the pork barrel and its perks and privileges abolished? Simple… They want the senators and congressmen completely excluded from dipping (a.k.a. stealing)their dirty fingers into the pork for their own personal use. Mr. BS Aquino and other members of the Executive Branch should also have no perks and privileges (or fingers into it) in their respective pork barrels. Mr. Aquino has the biggest pork at a whopping (in excess of) PHP 1 Trillion Pesos! Correct me if I am wrong… That makes him the godfather crook of the pork barrel since his pork is not even audited and accounted for by COA. That is why Mr. BS Aquino pretends to be against the pork but in reality, he is for their own personal gain. Matuwid na daan? Nope… Just Ang Baliw na daan… Baliw sa Kapangyarihan and Baliw sa Kayamanan ng Kaban ng Bayan!
BS Aquino and his handlers saw a big problem after they announced the “abolition” of pork. Congressmen started pointing to his own funds, which is something he cannot live without. I think that’s the reason why BS Aquino cannot deny congress of funds.
the president is now saying he’ll formulate guidelines “manage” the discretionary funds.
Gee, different package, same old pork inside.
CORRECT LAHAT SILA AFTER THE TAXPAYERS MONEY. now the phil. govt has much money in the treasury ,eaning yumayaman ang treasury and mga filipino taxpayers getting poorer everyday due to these robbers in the government. An BNIR ang agency n nagpapahirap c taong bayan c laki ngg mga taxes n kinokolekta c ma employed and small businessmen and katiting c mga malalaking business owners muta lan ang kapares c kita nila. and these taxes being collected para nakawin ng ma senators, tongressmen and more…GRABE kawawa ang mga taxpayers. Mga bobo ang mga taga BIR ang withholdingtaxes sobran laki compared to the exemptions being granted. parang d nila alam gaano kabigat ang household expenses plus the educational expenses na ang kinikinta n juan dela cruz kulang pa c maginhawang pang araw araw n buhay ng isang FILIPINO employee…Haiiz kelan kaya cla magiging considerate and fair c mga ordinaryong filpino. KELAN nga b?
Transparency and accountability.
All senators/congressmen/cabinet secretaries should publish lists of their travel abroad, and why, since this is paid by the taxpayer.
One senator travelled to LA and los angeles 11 times last year.WTF.
And one senator managed 26 overseas trips
even newbie bam aquino has travelled abroad twice in the past month.
Politics is not for free holidays in 5 star hotels, or to use diplomatic immunity from search to transfer cash.
The truth shall set you free! From the Daily Tribune… more indigestion for the yellow trolls.
http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/18473-noynoy-responsible-for-pork-minority-to-force-abolition
http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/commentary/editorial/item/18453-an-operation-that-backfired
A SPAM BOT? That’s exactly what you said the other day.
Mathematically, we can say patronage politics is a function of pork barrel (presidential and PDAF). You need pork barrel to grease politicians to do the bidding of the executive branch.
Therefore, to stop the mismanagement of government budgets annually, we need to zero out patronage politics to eliminate pork barrel in the system. Setting it to zero requires that we have to find a minimum positive value/number of legislators in both houses.
How does one do it ? Call for an immediate rewrite of the Philippine Constitution. We need to enshrine legislative transparency, integrity and efficiency in the Philippine Constitution by indicating the parameters of legislation and expectations from legislators : (1) We need to set a maximum salary ceiling for legislators equal to 10% of their provincial INTERNAL REVENUE ALLOTMENT. Legislators like any other workers should work hard for their salaries. (2) They are expected to report for work using public transportation like buses, jeeps and taxis.
(3) They should be paid only for the days they attend the legislative sessions. All absences and holidays are not paid by taxes paid by the people.
(4) They should have no budgeted government service vehicles unless it is a manual bicycle. (5)They should have no budgeted government fund for bodyguards except one driver, one secretary, and one technical staff.
(6.1)Legislators are not allowed to propose congressional insertions in any agency and lumpsum budget. (6.2) Legislators shall indicate in their own website/folder within the Congress website, detailed accounting of their monthly pay slip and emoluments plus all financial documents of their individual budget activities on a monthly basis. (6.3) Legislators should post their ANNUAL SALNs in their website/folder within the Congress website. (7) Final budget approval or third reading should be on the floor. Legislative budget chairmen of both Congress and Senate and DBM secretary should not make the final approval of the budget in close session. (8) For contingency purposes and/or in cases of calamities or disasters, additional budgetary allocations should come from the contingency fund of the executive branch. (9) And lastly, there shall be no discretionary/unprogrammed fund for the President. All funds should be line-itemized and audited immediately after the fiscal year. All audits of government budget must be finished within the first quarter after the fiscal year. All legislators who have not submitted the complete financial documents supporting their budget plan should be identified and pay a fine corresponding to 25% of their annual salary. Such fines shall be automatically deducted from salary and indicated in their pay slip.
@Bean
They are all good ideas. However, our congressmen won’t be willing to submit themselves to such scrutiny.
The BS propaganda I read in the Manila Standard made me really laugh. BS Aquino was thanking the Luneta people for being his allies in the fight against the pork barrel. Man what a thick skinned A-hole this dictator is! His propaganda mill speaks for itself… demonic!
Every last one of them is a traitor to his people, and they have the balls to laugh at all of you to your faces, WHY? Because they all know what spineless gullible idiots THE PEOPLE are. They are going to continue to rob and laugh at all of you because they know you will not do a damm thing about it! YES, the truth is they all know that the little un-complicated web of lies they spine fools all of you, all of the time! THEY ARE ALL IN ON IT! for the sake of the people who control the POLITICIANS, get it? Wait,(for the mentally challenged amongst you)
RING RING, “H-E-L-L-O, Philippines?, We have some idiots that actually think the people they elect run the country.” …. “Really? R u kidding? They actually think those collossall shit-heads on those broken machines we sold them do anything but what we tell them to do? WOW, they really are dense as bricks, huh? OK, well, that’s a good thing. Call us if they get overly un-ruly.”.
Figure it out yet?
Blogging, how cute….get out and do something REAL! Gonna drop the ball at EXACTLY the wrong/right time.
Picnic in the park achieved nothing. Day out and take loads of photos.Rush home so they can upload to FB and tell all there friends and Tita in the States look at me macho Filipino.At work next day showing everyone 680 photos they took on Sunday.
Part 2 Day Trip to Enchanted Kingdom. Ride the roller coaster and take even more photos.
Meanwhile the politicians lose no sleep,business as usual. No one cares and no one tries to stop them from stealing.
@Yawn
That’s because it was too peaceful for the politicians to take notice.
Exactly! If we wanted the politicians to listen to us, let’s start with the 2016 Election and show them that the Filipino as a whole wanted a competent leaders and inept ones won’t make it.
Amazing.
Gerry,
What makes you think bloggers are not doing something “real” outside of the blogging world?
Just because you can’t write doesn’t mean others should quit writing too. 😉
Please Ilda, it was aimed at your readers’, not you. Whew, Filipino’s do get a tad sensitive about nothing, get over it.
and by doing something, I MEAN, have a million rally in front of the Palais/Senate and DEMAND resignations OR GET UGLY(make arrests for treason? Lynch a few?), right then and right there!
U kno? instead of getting upset at ME, for doing NOTHING. Get very FRIKKIN mad at the people who are robbing you blind, for decades!
I write very well and I would say if you’ve read any of it, you know it.
I am not your enemy.
sad but true, we could have set fire to congress and the senate house, instead we had a big picknick…wait, it wasn’t even a big party! most of the people were busy doing something else “more important”. The number didn’t even reach the million mark.
Philippine nationalism and patriotism is definitely dead!
@Gerry
You intentionally speak in riddles and then conveniently deny things. Now you are saying that your words were meant for GRP readers. Cut the crap. You’re just plain rude and think that your ideas are better than everyone else’s.
FYI, there are more valuable commenters here compared to you. You just say the same thing over and over anyway but add nothing of value to the conversation. Be original for once and stop copying and pasting your comments.
@ Ilda, I am a Gentleman and will refrain from sayng what I would like to say to you right now. However, I DENY NOTHING,CHILD!
I stand by the truth and veracity of what I say here and it is not for my own gain that I do it. What you think of my value as a commenter here matters about as much as if I ever comment here again. Good day, Child.
.
I don’t feel violence will fix issues with corruption but trials might do the job along with making the legislators…legislate and keep them out of money pots by regulation, it sounds like it’s deeply corrupt in government and outrage makes them act, it’s going to take a long time though, if the President makes sweeping changes without the help of citizens such as these marches he could set himself up for some serious security issues as a target.
@Mcalleyboy, as foreiegner’s in the country, we must be careful, they really do not like Foreigners meddling in their business.
There are also some really idiotic slander and libel laws on the books here and a Foreigner could get in some serious shit if he/she was dumb enough to use their own name here and someone in the Gov’t. got a hair up their ass about it.Use a VPN when posting,IMO.
Those are a few of the reasons I do speak in riddles here sometimes. The chick who just lashed out at me was right about ONLY that, so I am just going to come out and say it,
The only way anything in this shit hole country is going to change is thru a massive hideous act of violence towards the existing power structure. Some ways to do it would be to have two separate one million people march’s one on the Palais and one on the Senate and demand resignations of all of them under threat of arrest on treason charges and crimes against the Filippines people. If they refuse to come outside and face the music, Burn the mother-fuckin biuldings down to the ground with them inside. Such an event could occur during joint sessions of Congress or any day they are in session or at the Palais. Those wishing to avoid trials and face execution if convicted, and they would be convicted, could elect to leave the country and NEVER return. The people could do this easily just about any time they want to as well. The PNP are under-staffed and the money for their bulletts was just stolen, HA! The Military would probably side with the people and try to set up some sort of Junta.
Just about everyone who is not in on the thieving is fuckin sick of the scumbags who run the country, they are actually due to get to steppin.
Yo Ilda, plain enough for ya?
@ Ilda…….
Well said Ms. Ilda.
Haven’t you noticed that Gerry’s slowly alienating himself from benign0, ChinoF, and the other GRP bloggers?
All he has to do if he asks for a solution for our social maladies is to just look at the home page. Gerry, I’ll even hotlink it for you: http://getrealphilippines.com/2013/06/the-one-and-only-correct-solution-to-the-profound-dysfunction-that-hobbles-philippine-societys-march-to-porsperity/
If he doesn’t like what he reads, he should respond there, at that article’s comment page, and not scream like a freaking shrew on any other comment page.
(I have yet to see what he has to say to benign0’s brilliant proposal)
Maybe the content of that page is beyond him… (He also avoids replying to me, Trosp,etc.; why that is, only he knows…)
He’s either a hardcore leftist or an anarchist. Either way, he’s really annoying. So my answer to his EDSA style solution:
MAUNA KA, DUDE. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. TWICE.
NOTHING HAPPENED. :p
BS Aquino, you are a congenital liar! Remember this phrase (congenital liar), BS? Rings a bell, doesn’t it?
There must be another Janet Napoles out there we do not know of.. Why don’t we urge all those so called honorable people in the senate and house of representative as well as the palace to divulge all those recipient of their PDAF so that the taxpaying people of the Republic of the Philippines will know if they are really true..
Anyway thanks GRP for keeping us informed even were out here in middle east.
Mas mainam sana kung mag-resign na lang sila kung hindi nila kayang magsilbi sa bayan na walang pork barrel kasama dito si Noynoy para hindi mahirapan ang bayan kung ano ang gagawin sa kanila. Humanap na lang tayo ng mga tao na papalit sa kanila na hindi mga sinungaling,hindi mapaghiganti, , hindi manlilinlang at magpapatupad ng walang kinikilingan na hustisya. Huwag na nilang pahirapan ang bayan kaya mag-resign na sila para makasulong naman tayo.
Legislation should be the first priority going after a self-serving system will not work it only delays the many laws that need to be overturned and changed, transparency and an open government that can work together as one and not separate entities is a must and no more go betweeners, get rid of the civilians that also run government projects it needs to happen yesterday, no more pork barrel what so ever for members in Congress or the senate if nothing gets who cares they get no money and things remain the same, no need to strong-arm others with long drawn out trials that don’t fix infrastructure, business creation and jobs, it’s sick to watch OFW’s leave their family behind also with lazy, lackadaisical, big shot, party animal family members who should be working also.
Funny I stumbled in this site. Anyway your article is interesting and I have to say that I agree that Pnoy mislead the public about the pork barrell, that was intention in the first place.
It’s not really rocket science to see what Pnoy is really up to but I think he’s using Napoles as “bait” to divert the attention of the public to mask his own faluires then he swops around and becomes the “hero” of the masses by arresting Napoles increasing his popularity.
Frankly speaking, I don’t see the point of arresting Napoles has something to do with solving the pork barrell “scam” (if there is really an evidence of a scam).
This political tactic has been executed by the government over and over again to cover whatever they want to cover.
Truth in the matter is, poverty is way worse than the pork barrell “scam”. They should focus more in resolving poverty than a mnuch publisized “scam”.
So long as Napoles is alive, the country should have no reason to worry. But what PNoy did, which created innuendos and gossips, in letting himself drag in the center of the drama was a bit over the top. I just hope Napoles stays alive because PNoy up the ante when he put personal touch on the issue.
I’m not in the business of accusing anyone who is not a suspect like Napoles especially when I have no basis and I will remain so until everything is revealed, exposed and admitted to in a formal set up like court trial, confession or admission of guilt.
I have no preconceived idea against any one, aside from Napoles, because I have yet to hear from those person implicated their version of the story IF there is such a thing.
‘PNoy misled public on pork barrel funds: It’s still in the budget and legislators still want it’
Sorry, it was cut. Anyway, just curious, how come the public is misled when the legislators, who are supposed to represent them, knew it and in fact wanted it? Also, if they knew and wanted it, how come it is only PNoy that is being pinned on it?
Just a thought.
Did you understand the president’s statement? In his opinion, he said the pork barrel should be abolished. In its place he proposed the approvals should be through line item allocations with the executive department having sole responsibility over fund disbursements. Lawmakers will have decision-making power regarding monies only during budget deliberations and/or when funding is discussed in the crafting of new legislation. At the same time, the president avoided any discussion of his office’s own pork allocation, an amount that far outstrips congressional pork by billions of pesos. This “solution” effectively concentrates ALL leverage in this government IN ONE PERSON — BS Aquino. This contradicts his opening statement where he claims that it is his desire to “abolish” pork barrel. That’s called obfuscation. The president made a deliberate attempt to mislead his listeners/viewers by saying one thing and proposing some vague concoction that changes the name of the pork barrel system while simply moving the money around. It didn’t eliminate anything. Please try to think why you should be concerned about these statements by the president.
If you notice, it was on the title I expressed my curiosity with. But anyway, to respond to your question, yes, I understood what the president said. He wants the pork barrel of the legislators abolished while at the same time maintaining that his pork should stay. I don’t see any contradictory there.
Apparently you DID NOT understand the president’s statement at all. Or perhaps you didn’t bother to listen to the rest of the statement after hearing “Panahon na po upang i-abolish ang PDAF.” In the same breath, Penoy says he will come up with safeguards and mechanisms to control budgetary releases. How is that not contradictory? He first states that the PDAF system needs to be abolished. Then he says that the executive will undertake measures to control the release of funds. Unless there is a different meaning of the word “abolish” in the English language, I do not see how you can begin to reconcile these two statements — the first being a declaration to remove the pork barrel system, which the public has been clamoring for, and the second to control the release of funds under the SAME framework that allocates money to lawmakers who have NO BUSINESS involving themselves in executive functions to begin with. If you are still incapable of comprehending this simple concept, this is what it means: the PORK BARREL WILL NOT BE ABOLISHED. What the president is saying is that he wants to assume control over ALL of it. WITH NO ACCOUNTABILITY OR EVEN THE SLIGHTEST EXPLANATION! I have no idea how this simple fact escapes you. Worse, it is disturbing that the growing authoritarian rule of the president does not bother you in the least.
Like I said, I saw no contradiction in what the president has said. It was clear that he intends to abolish the current practice where legislators exercises power to dispense and allocate pork. He is clear on that. He also talked about introducing new measures that will guarantee transparency in the new process. Now, will the legislators exercise the same authority over pork in the new process? No. I-aabolish na nga e! So, you see, there’s no contradiction.
Now, to some people, there could be lack of confidence or doubt as to what he intends to do. They said, he will abolish the pork barrel of legislators but he will maintain his. They suggest that it will just promote ‘palakasan’ or system of ingratiation like the in the old system. Meaning, there is a big possibility that the opposition legislators will lose out over with those close to the president. But that is also unclear because I’ve heard Sec. Abad saying that legislators, under the proposed new system, will no longer get their hands on pork because it will be course through the agencies.
With regard to your ‘no accountability’, I doubt that because while the legislators will no longer be accountable because there’s no more pork for them, the president will now be on the crosshairs because he is the only one who has the pork. If the new process will exempt him from check and balance or transparency, there would be problems.
The thing with the president is whenever it necessitates to revisit a subject, he never does. Of course it helps most pinoys have the memory of Nemo’s fish friend. You don’t believe me there was a certain tour bus incident where he was grinning at the press conference and to this day Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word for him. Another incident that popped up where Lacierda promised to get back to us and never has. http://getrealphilippines.com/2012/11/theres-three-sides-to-every-story/
Leb,
The only thing I can do is again appeal to whatever faculties you may have, however limited, to apply some critical thinking to what is a simple issue. A ten-year-old could comprehend the lies in BS Aquino’s press conference. I am wondering what it will take for you to realise this.
JS, no need for appeal. You see the glass Half-full I see it Hal- empty. Let’s agree on that.
Definition of abolish: 1. To do away with; annul 2. To destroy completely.
PNoy definitely did NOT abolish the Pork like he said he would. It’s still in the proposed 2014 budget and legislators like Drilon still want to keep it. Since PNoy did not remove it from the 2014 budget, which is up for deliberation in Congress, it can still be approved and become a law. Once it is a law, it will be harder to repeal it.
sino ang hahawak sa budget kung wala na ang pork barrel system?
sigurado bang sila ay d rin mangungurakot?
para sa akin kasalanan din naman natin yan kasi d tayo bumoto ng tama noong election
The funds should be allocated to the departments that handle the projects relative to them. If the project involves fixing the roads and building bridges, it should be handled by the Department of public works and highways. If the project involves education, it should be handled by the Department of education. The members of congress don’t really have any business handling the funds for these kinds of projects anyway. They should be crafting laws and deliberating them. Maybe since we have enough laws, congress should be abolished too.
Absolutely!!! And now this stupid media reporting some members feeling demoralized after it was taken out (allegedly) from next year’s budget.. WOW!!!!
I thought the company that develops the highways is private they carry the government name but their not public. There’s many more issue with that company, reason traffic can’t be fixed.
change must always arise indeed…we must look to our campuses and watch over the students..who then, will be the future leaders of this country.train this students to be good, honest, and trustworthy leaders..so that in the succeeding future..corruption will be totally abolished…
pork barrel system even if it’s in new form will never be transparent without the FOI Law. any government transactions involving publc funds must be publish to all media outlets and social media and should be released to the public without any condition.
PNoy – tira ko to’!!! LOL!
Lahat ng mga kasabwat ni BS Aguino polpol presidente ng Pilipinas ay pareparehong kriminal. Kawawang mga Pilipino, wala nang katapusan ang sindak ng mga mahihirap dahil sa mga ulupong na nakaupo sa gobyerno. Walang konsyensya mga iyan, naghihintay si satanas sa impyerno para isaisahin susunugin ang kanilang mga kaluluwa. Funyetang mga animal buti pa ang baboy pag nabusog tigil na ang kain, sila walang kabusogan, sige sige lang ang pagnanakaw sa kaha para sa madla.