MANILA, Philippines -- What are the elements that should make the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF)

acceptable? According to Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo, these are: transparency, people's participation, and removal of the lawmakers discretion over the identification of projects to be funded. Robredo on Tuesday pitched for the creation of the District Development Council (DDC) in every legislative district to act as the sole body that will determine how a congressman's PDAF should be spent. She said she would soon file a resolution to include her proposal as among the mechanisms in reforming PDAF." When the scandal happened, I said will propose a resolution. ... (I hope) I will be able to show the success of this formula. If PDAF will continuously be used as tool for patronage politics, it's really better to abolish it. But if it can be converted into something that can be a tool for development and ensure inclusive growth, we can still show it can be used for something good," she told reporters in a news conference and a succeeding interview. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said he believes Robredo's proposal "is a good idea." "We are trying to think up ideas. We will discuss them at some point," he said. President Benigno Aquino III announced last week that he was abolishing PDAF amid alleged misuse of billions in the past years. He also identified several guidelines on its use, including asking lawmakers to identify specific projects for their districts to be included in the deliberation of the budget. The announcement, however, failed to appease the public who still trooped to Luneta Park in Manila on August 26 to protest against the pork barrel system. Robredo, widow of the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, said she believes her proposal can help temper the public's outrage against the PDAF misuse. "Palagay ko, may pinaghuhugutan ang outrage, especially noong lumabas ang mga kwento Bago akong congresswoman, marami pa akong hindi naiintindihan sa proseso pero hindi ko lubos na maisip how it happened. I think hindi naman unreasonable ang tao sa kanyang hinihiling. Kung ikaw ang nagbibigay ng pera, syempre gusto mo maayos ang paggastos," she said. (I think the stories of abuse were the source of the legitimate outrageIm a new congresswoman, there are a lot of things about the process I still dont understand but I cannot fully understand how it happened. I think the peoples demand is not unreasonable. If you are giving the money, you want to fix t he system.) DDC composition The DDC will be composed of all mayors in the district and representatives from the provincial government, national government agencies, the Liga ng mga Barangay, and non-government and people's organizations, according to Robredo. Based on the government database, she said the council will identify and prioritize the projects to be funded by the lawmaker's PDAF. Part of the PDAF will also be converted into a district performance incentive fund, which can be accessed by a city, municipality, or barangay that performs well based on a checklist of indicators in education, health, livelihood, and local governance. "With the council, you remove the discretion of identifying projects on the congressman, you stamp out patronage politics," she said. Robredo said that constituents of lawmakers should have a say in deciding how the PDAF should be spent on the district. "When you involve people every step of the way, they become more trusting of their government. Para maging transparent ka, una dapat buksan mo ang sarili mo sa people's participation (To be more transparent, you have to open yourself to peoples participation)," she said. "Di ba may kasabihan na pag marami ang nanonood (Theres a saying that if a lot of people are watching), you have no choice but to put your best foot forward. To ensure na parati akong maayos, dapat hayaan ko na iyong tao panoorin ako, para kung may nakikita silang mali, sa umpisa pa lang matatawag na nila ang atensyon ko (To ensure that I am always

upright, I should let other people monitor my movement so that if they see something wrong, from the start they will call my attention)," she added. Robredo said she thought about the concept of the DDC as her own guideline in using her PDAF in her district, but added that when the scandal broke out, she decided to propose it to the entire House as a resolution. PDAF reforms In the same conference, Samar Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento said he supported the measures identified by the President to reform the use of PDAF. He said the bottom up budgeting and performance-informed budgeting being implemented by the Department of Budget and Management would ensure that the people's money would go to intended beneficiaries. "Now, we are sure that projects to be funded by the government are those identified by the people," Sarmiento said. Only Congress can repeal PDAF Former Albay Representatove Edcel Lagman said that the abolition of the PDAF rests on Congress. "Since the PDAF is a law, being a legislated lump sum in the annual general Appropriations Act, it is Congress which has the plenary power to actually abolish the PDAF. Only the Congress can enact a law and subsequently amend or repeal it," he said. Malacanang has proposed P25.2 billion for PDAF in the proposed 2014 budget. Lagman, former minority leader and appropriations committee chairman, said that despite the pronouncement of the President that he was abolishing PDAF, Congress could still provide for it in the annual budget. "If the PDAF is not in the GAB, the President has nothing to abolish or veto," he said. "Verily, it is the House of Representatives, where all appropriation measures emanate, which will decide on the demise of the PDAF and officiate over its requiem," Lagman added. Earlier, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said that the P25.2 billion PDAF proposal would stay in the proposed P2.268trillion budget for 2014. But Abad said that the use of the pork barrel would be subject to new guidelines.

Pork barrel scam scandalizes the nation

All it took was one whistleblower to expose what a lot of people knew but were afraid to talk about because of the magnitude of the scam involving ghost projects. This scam has been going on for 10 years, costing the government P10 billion, and involving 28 senators and congressmen. Indeed, it is so big that there is only one way to describe it its the mother of all scams! But this could only be the tip of the iceberg. It could have been running for decades under different operators and involving hundreds of senators and congressmen.

But make no mistake; nobody is insinuating that every member of Congress was involved in the scam. There are members of Congress who are using their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel solely for the benefit of their constituents. Recently, its reported in the news that a certain Merlina Pablo Sunas had submitted an affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) linking five senators and 23 congressmen to a scam ran by a certain Janet Lim Napoles of JLN Group of Companies. The lawmakers allegedly released their pork barrel funds to bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs). In return, these NGOs would kick back a percentage of the funds to the lawmakers and keep the rest of the money. Sunas was a trusted employee of Napoles whom Napoles appointed as president of one of Napoles bogus NGOs -the Peoples Organization for Progress and Development Foundation Inc. (POPDFI). The five senators who were linked to the scam are the following: Ramon Revilla, Jr. - P 1.017 billion Juan Ponce Enrile - P 641.65 million Jinggoy Estrada - P 585 million Ferdinand Marcos Jr. - P 100 million Gregorio Honasan - P 15 million Modus operandi The exposure of the scam was an offshoot of a certain Benhur Luys alleged kidnapping by Napoles, his employer. The NBI was tipped of the alleged kidnapping and NBI agents rescued Luy last March 22. Consequently, kidnapping charges were filed against Napoles. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed the charges for lack of probable cause. Luy then executed an affidavit accusing Napoles of setting up five bogus NGOs that Napoles used to pull off the scam, which included the fertilizer fund scam, Malampaya scam, and the pork barrel scam. The NGOs were supposed to use the funds to procure or provide supplies and services; however, no deliveries were ever made. To cover these ghost projects, the implementing agencies submitted fake liquidation papers to show that the supplies or services were delivered or performed. After kickbacks were made to the ones authorizing the release of the funds to the NGOs, the funds eventually made their way to Napoles personal bank accounts. The question is: Would the DOJ succeed in prosecuting Napoles? Evidently, Napoles is a very powerful and influential businesswoman who knows what money can buy. But first, the DOJ has to find her and her brother, Reynald Lim, who was also implicated in the scam. As of today, the siblings are nowhere to be found. Makes one wonder who are protecting them? Abolish the pork Once again, pork barrel is at the forefront of national debate. As a result of the scandal, Sen. Frank Drilon proposed limiting the use of PDAF. However, Sen. Chiz Escudero had been advocating for abolition of the pork barrel system for many years. In my article, Power of the Pork (February 3, 2010), I wrote: In 2009, Sen. Francis Chiz Escudero introduced Resolution No. 900 urging the Senate committee on Finance to cause the immediate review and accordingly

propose the repeal or amendment of Presidential Decree No. 1177 and Book VI of Executive Order No. 292,specifically all provisions pertinent to budget preparation, disposition and management, with the end in view of reverting to Congress the power of the purse as prescribed by the Constitution. A few weeks ago, Escudero a proponent of the abolition of the pork barrel system said that Gloria has been exercising her power to impound pork not because of any lofty purpose but to give out or withhold political favor to help her allies and to strangle her political opponents. P-Noy doubles pork barrel But instead of abolishing the pork barrel system, President Benigno P-Noy Aquino III, who succeeded Gloria in June 2010, doubled the pork barrel allocations for the legislators. On top of each of the 278 congressmens P70million pork barrel, they were given an extra P75 million each to be used for infrastructure projects in their districts. The extra pork barrel for each congressman consisted of P50 million from the budget of the Department of Public Work and Highways (DPWH) and another P25 million from the Road Users Tax. The decision to provide additional pork barrel to the congressmen was seemingly made to placate a number of them who threatened to block the passage of the national budget on grounds of unequal budgetary allocations, due mainly to former president and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyos humongous DPWH pork barrel. Mother of all pork In my article, Pigging out on Barrels of Pork (October 27, 2010), I wrote: But the biggest recipient of pork barrel in Congress is no other than Gloria who for some mysterious reason is going to get a P2.2-billion lump sum pork barrel from the DPWH budget. This is in addition to her P70-million PDAF pork, the P50-million extra infrastructure pork, another P28 million on top of that, and the P25-million windfall from the Road Users Tax. The mystery was solved when Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello revealed that Gloria used her influence when she was president to make sure that her district would get a lot of projects funded by multilateral lending agencies from Japan and South Korea. What we discovered is while she was president, she [Arroyo] had contracted with foreign aid agencies to be able to funnel over the next few years billions of pesos into the 2nd district of Pampanga. Sinabi ni [Public Works Secretary Rogelio] Singson kahapon, hes helpless kasi his hands are tied, kasi these were committed by foreign aid agencies like the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Korea Development and Cooperation Fund, Bello said. Reforming the system With the expos that implicated 28 lawmakers in the pork barrel scam, there is a need for instituting reforms on how pork barrel is doled out. The magnitude of the pork barrel scam has set back P-Noys reform agenda and scandalized the nation. Mr. President, pork barrel germinates corruption. You abolish pork barrel and corruption withers. And if you want to leave a lasting legacy for the Filipino people, abolition of pork barrel would be the hallmark of your presidency. Then and only then can you say that youve achieved your campaign promise, Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. Indeed, for as long as there is corruption, there is poverty, Mr. President.