A research group had warned that scheming members of Congress, who are under siege for the outrageous flood control projects, have shifted to “soft” projects to generate discretionary funds.
The Ibon Foundation stated that P83.9 billion is being redirected to ambiguous pork barrel projects — discretionary funds that require political guarantee letters and lack identified beneficiaries.
The group said that the lack of controls on post-enactment political meddling jeopardizes accountability while encouraging patronage.
Among the “soft” pork programs receiving increased funding are Assistance for Individuals in Crisis Situation (P32.1 billion), medical aid for indigents (P26.7 billion), Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (P14.8 billion), and DoLE Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (P3.3 billion).
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also appears to have been allocated an additional pork barrel, specifically the Presidential Assistance to Farmers, Fisherfolk and Families (P7 billion).
The House of Representatives also sidelined civil society organizations (CSOs) from the Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee (BARS) meeting on the fund realignment.
Despite creating a people’s organization mechanism to involve the public more, the people were reduced to just passively watching the livestreamed BARS proceedings without any real participation or a way to forward concerns.
The continued intentional neglect of key anti-corruption agencies and the merely tokenistic involvement of the public and CSOs in the budget process strongly suggests a superficial anti-corruption campaign by the Marcos Jr. administration, no matter how sensational.
Deep-seated and widespread corruption in the government will continue, resulting in hundreds of billions of pesos annually and trillions of pesos over decades being diverted from the needs of the people for services and development, according to Ibon.