Pork binge

Efforts to revive the pork barrel have been going on in the past three years through the collusion of Executive and Legislative officials, the pattern exposed by a budget watchdog.

The racket starts with big-ticket projects being relegated to unprogrammed appropriations to make way for pet projects of members of Congress.

Thus, in the recent deliberation of the bicameral conference committee, some members expressed sentiment over the betrayal by their peers yet they did not block the insertions that bumped off key projects from the budget.

The task of economic managers was to scour for funds, either through borrowings or sweeping the budget of so-called excess funds of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Pork projects, thus, were included in the programmed appropriations, included in the official budgets of different agencies. Priority projects, in turn, became unprogrammed appropriations, bloating the budget.

Among those pushed aside in such maneuvers were big-ticket projects of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) such as the Metro Rail Transit Line 4, the Davao Public Transport Modernization Project, and the North-South Commuter Railway System.

Swept in 2024 to plug the unprogrammed items were the P89.9-billion “excess funds” of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. which together will raise more than P200 billion for the unprogrammed projects.

The Supreme Court (SC) had halted the transfers of the GOCC funds to the National Treasury through an injunction, acting on petitions claiming that the actions violated the Constitution, although P60 billion in PhilHealth funds had already been transferred to the Treasury in three tranches since May.

A budget expert said the 2024 budget had to have a provision allowing the Department of Finance to collect idle funds from state firms since the important projects were relegated to items that couldn’t be spent unless the government had extra funds.

What has become a practice in resuscitating the pork barrel system that the SC declared unconstitutional in a landmark 2013 decision is to de-prioritize projects partly funded by foreign loans.

If the SC strikes down the use of the GOCC funds for the projects, a budget expert said these projects will stall, leaving the government with commitment fees for foreign-funded projects piling up.

Other items in the unprogrammed appropriations are “special purpose funds,” like the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (which mandates free tuition in state and local universities), the expansion of cold storage facilities (crucial for agriculture), social pensions for indigent senior citizens and the National Data Privacy Program.

An advocate of fiscal discipline said in the past budgets until this year, nearly 20 percent or a fifth of the national budget was allocated for legislators’ pork with guaranteed a cash cover.

In the SC ruling outlawing the pork barrel, cunning legislators found a loophole in that lump sum funds can still exist so long as it is pre-identified and embedded in the budget of agencies.

Thus, in the past three budgets, about 20 percent of the DPWH’s budget went to flood control projects and another 44 percent to “local roads, bridges and multi-purpose halls.”

An increasing portion of the Department of Agriculture’s budget went to farm-to-market roads.

Lawmakers are also bloating the Department of Social Welfare and Development budget for financial assistance programs or ayuda as most Filipinos know it.

Worse, the racket has given the leadership of Congress tight control over which pork projects are funded.

Despite the SC ruling banning it, the pork barrel system is back and has been transformed into something more hideous.

Wheeling and dealing is now held behind closed doors of the bicameral conference committee with both Senate and House members sharing in the bacchanalia.