Let us save our country (4)

Just as there are variants of the deadly Covid-19 virus, there is a more deadly variant of the pork barrel disease.

The period today is similar to the time the presidential election of 2022 was just weeks away, when the pork barrel was thought to come out under another name to thrive again, as was usually done in the budgets for programs and projects of district representatives for the benefit of their constituencies.

This outlawed practice was implied to have happened again with no less than then Senator Panfilo Lacson, an anti-pork barrel advocate who ran for president in 2022 with then Senate president Tito Sotto as his running mate, expressing his sadness when he noted that “there were no transcripts taken during the bicameral conference committee meetings of the Senate and House panels on the budget, where questionable appropriations were inserted.”

Senate old-timers have opined that holding bicameral committee meetings on the budget without taking transcripts was unconstitutional.

Where will the pork variant come from?

According to Lacson, the pork barrel system, under the unconstitutional practice, allowed the legislators to insert items in the budget for programs and projects that benefit their constituencies.

In preparing the national budget, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) was obviously avoiding the lump sum prohibition. But there was an emergence of the more horrific source of the outlawed pork, in the form of the most misclassified items of expenditure in the chart of accounts, the maintenance and other operating expenses account, indicative of so many things. Only certified public accountants (CPAs) with the right attitude and aptitude can easily handle this type of work in the office of the accountant.

Vice presidential aspirant Sotto had a way of addressing the pork barrel system, which allowed the legislators to insert items in the budget for programs and projects to benefit their constituencies.

Sotto said allocations for lawmakers’ districts should be specified in the National Expenditure Program before its submission to Congress. The DBM prepares the National Expenditure Program.

“Alam nila (lawmakers) kung ano ang mga pangangailangan sa distrito nila. Ilalagay na nila sa National Expenditure Program na isa-submit sa Kongreso, (Lawmakers know their district’s needs. They will include them in the National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress),” Sotto said.

“Kapag ganun (This way) you will not violate the Supreme Court ruling on the pork barrel kung nasa ayos at magiging maliwanag (if it is done right and clearly),” he added.

The former Senate president said that usually the contractors provided the lawmakers [the amounts needed for their] allocations or insertions.

These were not necessarily in their districts. Friends who helped out during the elections brought these matters up; they had to be accommodated.

The suggestions and advice of no less than the Senate President of the Republic of the Philippines had weight. They were as strong as the inducements of Senate President Franklin Drilon in his letters to the senators when he was chairman of the Senate finance committee telling them about the availability of funds for their special projects.

These funds turned out to be the DAP money released before, during and after the impeachment trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

(To be continued)