Pork's spilled beans
Pork's spilled beans
Updated 01:09am (Mla time) Nov 22, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 22, 2004 issue of Philippine Daily Inquirer.
AT THE HEIGHT of the fiscal crisis scare three short months ago, a disturbing thought occurred to us. Perhaps we were all being taken for a ride. Perhaps the people were once again unwitting bit players in an elaborate, ultimately pointless, zarzuela.
The fiction did not lie in the declaration of a fiscal crisis; if anything, President Macapagal-Arroyo's candid admission came late. Economists here and financial analysts abroad had already raised serious questions about the government's capacity to pay its obligations. The warning from the 11 economists of the University of the Philippines that, in two or three years, obligations may finally outstrip capacity only served to place the problem in plain sight.
The fiction lay in the theatrics over the pork barrel.
In August, the President bowed to growing public clamor and asked Congress to reduce the pork barrel (the Priority Development Assistance Fund, in the Orwellian language of the national budget) by 40 percent. Our noble congressmen agonized dramatically, but eventually "approved in principle" a 38-percent reduction. A proud Speaker Jose de Venecia declared: "All of a sudden, everyone has become a statesman."
But the difficulty the Arroyo administration encountered in both chambers of Congress, in pushing the passage of the eight revenue bills it said were needed to meet the fiscal crisis, provoked not a little skepticism. It was the failure of Congress to deliberate on the 2005 national budget with appropriate urgency, however, that heightened our suspicions. Perhaps the slow approach was by design? If the proposed General Appropriations Act for 2005 is not passed in time, then the current budget is reenacted. (Actually, the current national budget is for 2003; it was reenacted for 2004 because our always-assiduous legislators ran out of time.)
What happens when the budget is reenacted? The 40-percent reduction in the pork barrel does not take effect. The PDAF stays at P70 million per congressman.
Like we said, a disturbing thought. Our beloved congressmen get to have their multimillion-peso cake and eat it too.
Early this month, the President made the startling announcement that the fiscal crisis was in fact over. The wild beast she had seen lurking in the shadows was now fully domesticated. Apparently, the non-passage of any of the eight revenue measures and the outpouring of concern and support from citizens across the country were enough to tame it.
At first, we couldn't make heads or tails of the announcement. A former top official in the Arroyo administration told the Inquirer that he too couldn't "understand the President's game." Not only was the President's declaration of victory premature. It was also highly dangerous, because it risked creating the very complacency that would put victory out of reach.
We couldn't understand it either, until that revealing exchange on the floor of the House last Wednesday between appropriations committee chair Rolando Andaya Jr. and Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas.
Cagas: "My question is: Next 2005, will we have the same pork barrel development projects for our districts which we have now at P70 million?"
Andaya replied in the affirmative, concluding: "After due consultation with [other congressmen], a vast majority have directed and requested the committee on appropriations, through the chairman, to retain the same level."
"Thank you," Cagas responded. "You are a hero."
A hero, indeed. At a time when the country's fiscal problems cannot be hidden from those with eyes to see and ears to hear, when political will is money in the bank or pogi points with international credit rating agencies, Andaya and Cagas and the rest have placed their personal and political interest ahead of the nation's.
In raising his pork barrel question, Cagas inadvertently revealed the true nature of the pork barrel zarzuela. "Your answer will hasten the approval of this budget or delay it," he had warned Andaya. His question, in other words, was all about how to keep the pork barrel at P70 million. If the answer was negative, then a delay in approval and thus a reenacted budget was the way to go. If the answer was positive, then a new budget would do the trick. Apparently, inside every one of De Venecia's statesmen is a patronage politician struggling, very successfully, to get out.
Updated 01:09am (Mla time) Nov 22, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 22, 2004 issue of Philippine Daily Inquirer.
AT THE HEIGHT of the fiscal crisis scare three short months ago, a disturbing thought occurred to us. Perhaps we were all being taken for a ride. Perhaps the people were once again unwitting bit players in an elaborate, ultimately pointless, zarzuela.
The fiction did not lie in the declaration of a fiscal crisis; if anything, President Macapagal-Arroyo's candid admission came late. Economists here and financial analysts abroad had already raised serious questions about the government's capacity to pay its obligations. The warning from the 11 economists of the University of the Philippines that, in two or three years, obligations may finally outstrip capacity only served to place the problem in plain sight.
The fiction lay in the theatrics over the pork barrel.
In August, the President bowed to growing public clamor and asked Congress to reduce the pork barrel (the Priority Development Assistance Fund, in the Orwellian language of the national budget) by 40 percent. Our noble congressmen agonized dramatically, but eventually "approved in principle" a 38-percent reduction. A proud Speaker Jose de Venecia declared: "All of a sudden, everyone has become a statesman."
But the difficulty the Arroyo administration encountered in both chambers of Congress, in pushing the passage of the eight revenue bills it said were needed to meet the fiscal crisis, provoked not a little skepticism. It was the failure of Congress to deliberate on the 2005 national budget with appropriate urgency, however, that heightened our suspicions. Perhaps the slow approach was by design? If the proposed General Appropriations Act for 2005 is not passed in time, then the current budget is reenacted. (Actually, the current national budget is for 2003; it was reenacted for 2004 because our always-assiduous legislators ran out of time.)
What happens when the budget is reenacted? The 40-percent reduction in the pork barrel does not take effect. The PDAF stays at P70 million per congressman.
Like we said, a disturbing thought. Our beloved congressmen get to have their multimillion-peso cake and eat it too.
Early this month, the President made the startling announcement that the fiscal crisis was in fact over. The wild beast she had seen lurking in the shadows was now fully domesticated. Apparently, the non-passage of any of the eight revenue measures and the outpouring of concern and support from citizens across the country were enough to tame it.
At first, we couldn't make heads or tails of the announcement. A former top official in the Arroyo administration told the Inquirer that he too couldn't "understand the President's game." Not only was the President's declaration of victory premature. It was also highly dangerous, because it risked creating the very complacency that would put victory out of reach.
We couldn't understand it either, until that revealing exchange on the floor of the House last Wednesday between appropriations committee chair Rolando Andaya Jr. and Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas.
Cagas: "My question is: Next 2005, will we have the same pork barrel development projects for our districts which we have now at P70 million?"
Andaya replied in the affirmative, concluding: "After due consultation with [other congressmen], a vast majority have directed and requested the committee on appropriations, through the chairman, to retain the same level."
"Thank you," Cagas responded. "You are a hero."
A hero, indeed. At a time when the country's fiscal problems cannot be hidden from those with eyes to see and ears to hear, when political will is money in the bank or pogi points with international credit rating agencies, Andaya and Cagas and the rest have placed their personal and political interest ahead of the nation's.
In raising his pork barrel question, Cagas inadvertently revealed the true nature of the pork barrel zarzuela. "Your answer will hasten the approval of this budget or delay it," he had warned Andaya. His question, in other words, was all about how to keep the pork barrel at P70 million. If the answer was negative, then a delay in approval and thus a reenacted budget was the way to go. If the answer was positive, then a new budget would do the trick. Apparently, inside every one of De Venecia's statesmen is a patronage politician struggling, very successfully, to get out.
posted by Dante at 10:51 PM
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