Daily TribuneThe pork barrel had surfaced in different forms, mainly through budget insertions through a collusion between the Department of Budget and legislators to go around the SC ruling’s prohibition on the post-enactment identification of projects.
Corrupt practices, such as the return of the pork barrel, have once again captured the nation’s attention amid the heated political clashes involving the country’s highest officials.
The impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the dispute over the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) center on the use of discretionary lump-sum funds — which are highly susceptible to misuse and abuse.
In 2013, the Supreme Court, in a monumental decision, ruled that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and all forms of pork barrel in the annual budget violated the Constitution.
Still, the pork barrel continued to surface in different forms, mainly through budget insertions through a collusion between the Department of Budget and legislators to go around the SC ruling’s prohibition on the post-enactment identification of projects.
In the ruling, the High Tribunal defined the pork barrel as “lump sums where the legislator is given the power of post-enactment identification of projects.”
In the metamorphosis of the pork barrel, the amounts subjected to kickbacks, pocketing and other irregularities had risen to more than what was provided in the illegal PDAF, which was P70 million for each member of the House of Representatives and P200 million for each senator yearly.
Former Interior Secretary Raffy Alunan gave an estimate of P2.452 trillion in the 2025 budget exposed to possible misuse and P1.25 trillion going directly to the pockets of politicians and government functionaries.
He derived the estimate by removing fixed obligations, including debt service amounting to P3.9 trillion, of which around P900 billion is debt service and P1.75 trillion for Personnel Services from the 2025 national budget of P6.352 trillion.
This leaves a balance of P2.452 trillion, which he said “is more or less vulnerable to fraudulent practices.” Assuming a 30-percent erosion lost to overpricing, under deliveries, ghost projects, and the like, that amounts to approximately P735 billion being diverted.
“Personnel services, too, is a huge source of ill-gotten wealth, where salaries and allowances of deceased, retired, or discharged personnel remain on the record and are illegally drawn by insiders,” Alunan said.
Alunan then mentioned the pernicious practice of excessive meetings to draw allowances and unwarranted bonuses as a reward for imaginary work, which he assumed was equivalent to 30 percent of the Personnel Services allocation or P525 billion.
Thus, P735 billion plus P525 billion amounts to approximately P1.25 trillion that “otherwise could augment the budgets for national, human, and ecological security, but instead are diverted due to corrupt practices that undermine our national interests.”
Benjamin Punongbayan, founder of auditing giant P&A Grant and Thornton, said that the annual amount of corruption in government, when put together, could have been deployed to large-scale programs that have long-term and wide beneficial effects on the nation’s economic growth and development.
The pilfered amount could have been used for large infrastructure that would provide connectivity within and among the country’s various islands (roads, railways, bridges, sea ports, airports and similar others); rehabilitation of the education system; a substantial reduction of poverty; a more expansive health care system; and other urgently needed economic and social development programs, Punongbayan added.
He had an approximately matching estimate as Alunan on the amount lining the pockets of the crooks in government.
“When broadening the base estimate of losses from corruption, the expanded annual estimate would be significantly higher than the P1.6-trillion current annual estimate mentioned before. By multiplying whatever higher amount that may come to mind by any number of years, it provides a result that gives us a picture of the enormity of the opportunities for continuous economic growth that we lost during the past many years,” he said.
Coming from a top accountant, the yearly estimate of corruption’s cost in the budget is likely to be highly accurate.
Punongbayan’s prognosis is disconcerting: “And much more than this, we continue to suffer such losses annually, and there seems to be no end in sight.”
Corruption is driving Filipinos to the brink, pushing the political climate beyond the boiling point.
