Pig, pork, Ping

As the Filipino-Chinese among us prepare to welcome the Year of the Pig four days from now, let us play a little game.

Quick, what do the following terms have in common — Countryside Development Fund, Congressional Initiative Fund and Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Unless you were born yesterday, you must have guessed it right: they were the names that have been given to the pork barrel system in the Philippines over the years.

Pig and pork, they go together. Ask Pig, er, Ping Lacson. In a news article that came out in this paper last December, Lacson warned the public to brace for more “pork barrel” this year which, incidentally, is the Year of the Earth Pig.

Lacson, one of only a handful lawmakers who refuse to receive such funding, said 2019 may make happy only those who continue to benefit from the pork barrel system while the rest of the Filipinos shoulder the burden.

Pork barrel, as Wikipedia defines it, is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative’s district. First used in American English, it is a technical term connoting legislative control of local appropriations.

The term pork barrel politics is now popularly referred to as spending intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes.

Typically, “pork” involves funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated on a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects, certain national defense spending projects and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples.

In the Philippines, however, it connotes a different meaning. It is used to mean funds allocated to lawmakers in both Houses to spend as they see fit without going through the normal budgetary process or through the Executive branch. It can be used for both “hard” projects, such as buildings and roads, and “soft” projects, such as scholarships and medical expenses. The program has had different names over the years, including the Countryside Development Fund, Congressional Initiative Fund and, currently, the PDAF. Since 2006, the PDAF was 70 million for each representative and 200 million for each senator.

During the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, PDAF became the biggest source of corruption among the legislators. Kickbacks were common and became syndicated — using pre-identified project implementers, including government agencies, contractors and bogus non-profit corporations, as well as the government’s Commission on Audit.

In August 2013 during the incumbency of Noynoy Aquino, outrage over the P10 billion PDAF scam, involving Janet Lim-Napoles and numerous senators and representatives, led to widespread calls for the abolition of the PDAF system. The so-called Million People March which occurred on 26 August 2013 — National Heroes’ Day in the Philippines — called for the end of “pork barrel” and was joined by simultaneous protests nationwide and by the Filipino diaspora around the world.

Petitioners have challenged the constitutionality of the PDAF before the High Court following reports of its widespread and systematic misuse by some members of Congress in cahoots with private individuals. Three incumbent senators and several former members of the House of Representatives have been named respondents in a plunder complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged P10 billion pork barrel scam. Public outrage over the anomaly resulted in the largest protest gathering under the three-year-old Aquino administration.

On 19 November 2013, the Supreme Court, bless its heart, declared the PDAF as unconstitutional.

Five years later, however, our lawmakers have not totally gotten over this addiction to pork. It’s not easy to forget what happened at the close of 2018 where legislators fought over pork barrel.

As claimed by Senator Lacson, discretionary funds were inserted in the 2019 national budget. During the plenary debates on the P3.757 trillion national appropriation, Lacson said our dear congressmen realigned items in the budget amounting to P56.7 billion to their respective districts.

Some congressmen received P60 million each for their districts, but Lacson said others got more — P1.9 billion worth of projects — while some got P2.4 billion, of which P500 million went to farm-to-market roads.

Only this week, Lacson revealed senators have P23 billion in individual amendments in the proposed 2019 national budget which, he insisted, should be considered as “pork barrel” if not justified.

This is a lot of money. Our lawmakers should be ashamed. If the President has been challenged to walk alone at night without security escorts, we now challenge our lawmakers to step down from their ivory towers to take a look at what’s happening on the ground in the houses of common folks. We can call this game the “pork-barrel challenge.” We’re sure they will be appalled at what they will see.

Or, failing to get any takers, we can probably just join the Chinese New Year revelry and, as one unified taxpayers, help scare away the greedy spirits of our pork-loving solons.