Ceasefire over pork?

“He knows he can be toppled easily if he is unsuccessful in making his congressmen happy with, of course, their pork, which is essential to them.

The “word war” over the pork in the 2020 national budget that ensued between the Senate and the House of Representatives is claimed to be over, so say its leaders who had bared that an agreement has been reached with a “ceasefire” that does not appear to work, as the “word war” will likely continue between Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Rep. Fredenil Castro, even as the congressman stated that he will no longer respond to the “fictitious” pork claims coming from the senator.

The agreement, according to reports, was reached between Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, as well as Anakalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor, last Wednesday.

The reason for the apparent failure of the claimed agreed on ceasefire is that the alleged agreement was forged by leaders who have no control over their members, although they try to portray the deteriorated situation in both houses as being over.

“We agreed to have a ceasefire because individual members of the Senate and the House have criticized one another. It does not represent the institution. It does not represent the House of Representatives nor does it represent the Philippine Senate,” Zubiri told reporters, adding that both houses should work together to pass the budget and for cooler heads to prevail.

Some congressmen have been demanding Senator Lacson to apologize for his “fictitious” claims of pork barrel, especially pertaining to the alleged pork barrel in a letter from Congressman Castro for help from Lacson for him to get over P230 million for his project, which the senator termed as yet another try of Castro to get his pork allocation.

A lot more House members joined the call for Lacson to issue an apology after he alleged the House had planned to insert an additional P1.5 billion in funds for each of the 22 deputy speakers and P700 million to 300 members.

But this may just be a longer ceasefire, which may make Lacson unhappy, since Congressman Castro in a statement said he would no longer respond to Lacson’s remark, stressing that “the issue is now becoming a childish quarrel.”

“The allegation, being fictional, does not deserve my comment,” he said.

Lacson makes a lot of headlines when he exposes the pork — usually of congressmen, but somehow does not appear to expose the pork of the senators.

The better for a presidential run, perhaps?

Defensor, who earlier had demanded an apology from the senator, also has apparently agreed to a ceasefire. How long that ceasefire may last is anybody’s guess, but it won’t be too long, considering that Lacson has made it clear that he will continue to expose any and all pork barrel in the 2022 budget.

No doubt the senators and the congressmen will still have their “institutional pork.”

The House unfortunately has earned the reputation of being pork hungry, which is perhaps why Lacson’s baring of the House plan to come up with an additional P1.5 billion in funds has come off as credible, especially since House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano hardly has real support from the majority of the House members.

Cayetano appears to be much too generous with the people’s tax money without any solid justification. Imagine giving his 22 deputy speakers P1.5 billion a year when employees and even some employers don’t even get that much by way of their salaries and allowances!

And truthfully, there really is no need for a House to have 22 deputy speakers and more members of House committees, which naturally will bloat the budget. But Cayetano probably gets much more for him to generously give his deputies P1.5 billion each.

However, it has to be remembered that Cayetano was elected Speaker only because President Duterte, who has a lot of clout over the majority in the House, expressed his wish for Cayetano to be the speaker on an agreed term basis, with Cayetano serving as speaker for 15 months.

But there is always that fear in Cayetano that his 15-month term is not a guarantee that he can hold on to his current seat, as there has already been a precedent of a House coup. And he knows he can be toppled easily if he is unsuccessful in making his congressmen happy with, of course, their pork, which is essential to them and, to be fair, to their constituents who had given them their vote from their respective districts and their projects.

This is the reason the House’s initial “pork” escaped initial scrutiny since it was sought before the House budget bill was passed, and not inserted after, following the Senate’s own way to get pork in, disguised as “institutional” but pork nevertheless.

And without additional pork through some “miraculous” ways and means, there may just be a new speaker sooner than later.