Shameless
Shameless
Updated 03:47am (Mla time) Nov 25, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 25, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
View full-size editorial cartoon
MEMBERS of Congress have nothing to be ashamed of, Davao del Sur Representative Douglas Cagas said. "Go to our provinces, and the people will say it is something good," Cagas added as he defended the decision of the House of Representatives to retain in next year's budget all of the P70-million pork barrel they have been voting for each of them each year in the last few years.
Coming from Cagas that pronouncement isn't surprising. After all he is the same lawmaker who recently hailed as a "hero" the chair of the appropriations committee, Camarines Sur Representative Rolando Andaya Jr., after the latter assured the House that every member would get his pork barrel intact.
Besides, shame is the last thing people expect from the lawmakers who have insisted, that with or without a financial crisis, they are entitled to continue feasting on pork. Defying a widespread public clamor to give up the graft-ridden pork barrel, House members, including the party-list representatives who once denounced it, said their constituents needed it and wanted it. One congressman said their "primordial concern" in fighting for their pork barrel was "the welfare of their constituents."
They must have a tiny constituency, indeed. The biggest beneficiaries of the pork barrel can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Senator Panfilo Lacson, one of the few members of Congress who have given up their pork barrels, has provided details on how a lucky few profit from it. When a project is funded by the pork barrel, Lacson said, the legislator usually gets 20 percent of the cost of the project in kickbacks. The district engineer and other public works official get 10 percent; the governor or mayor, 5 to 10 percent; the “barangay” [village or neighborhood district] council chair, 2 percent; and the auditor, another 2 percent. Since the contractor also has to earn something, all that is left for the project is about 40 percent of the money allocated for it.
If Lacson's estimates are correct, then each House member must be pocketing as much as P14 million yearly from the pork barrel or P42 million over one three-year term. This probably explains why congressmen find it difficult to give up position as well as why they get reelected from one term to the next until they have to pass on the position to the wife or husband or one of the children.
Not surprisingly, too, House members now talk openly about their intense craving for pork as well as its misuse. For instance, Compostela Valley Representative Manuel Zamora, who rides a bike to attend sessions, admits (in jest, of course) that he accepts whatever contractors are willing to give since he is a mere “butiki” [house lizard]. But there are “bayawak” [iguanas] in the House who gobble up as much as 50 percent of the pork, he says. Ironically, Zamora made these revelations while urging the people to stop criticizing the pork barrel since they are like "manna from heaven" to those living in far-flung provinces.
Andaya, the head of the appropriations committee, talks about the P70-million allocation for each member as if it were small change. "Slim pickings," he calls it. "Crumbs don't make a feast."
But with 236 House members, those crumbs add up to P16.2 billion. Throw in the P200-million pork allocation for each senator and you have a mountain of crumbs worth more than P20 billion. Hardly slim pickings by any measure, and a monstrous misallocation of funds, given the P200-billion deficit projected for this year and the P5.4-trillion debt of the government and government institutions.
It was precisely to help stave off a financial crisis that the call was made for Congress to give up the pork barrel. That was supposed to be the lawmakers' contribution to the national effort to cut costs and raise revenues to narrow the budget deficit and shrink the public debt.
After declaring that the country was in the midst of a financial crisis, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced a number of cost-saving measures, including the streamlining of the bureaucracy. Then she announced the creation of about a dozen new offices with ill-defined functions. Now it is Congress' turn to act as if the twin problems of a widening deficit and mounting debts have been licked.
In the meantime, the citizens were told they would have to pay more in taxes, particularly on cigarettes and liquor and even oil products. They were also told to bear with the higher costs of electricity and water. All in the name of taming the runaway deficit and reducing the public debt. Apparently Malacañang and Congress want the Filipino people to foot the bill in full and make all the sacrifices.
Updated 03:47am (Mla time) Nov 25, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 25, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
View full-size editorial cartoon
MEMBERS of Congress have nothing to be ashamed of, Davao del Sur Representative Douglas Cagas said. "Go to our provinces, and the people will say it is something good," Cagas added as he defended the decision of the House of Representatives to retain in next year's budget all of the P70-million pork barrel they have been voting for each of them each year in the last few years.
Coming from Cagas that pronouncement isn't surprising. After all he is the same lawmaker who recently hailed as a "hero" the chair of the appropriations committee, Camarines Sur Representative Rolando Andaya Jr., after the latter assured the House that every member would get his pork barrel intact.
Besides, shame is the last thing people expect from the lawmakers who have insisted, that with or without a financial crisis, they are entitled to continue feasting on pork. Defying a widespread public clamor to give up the graft-ridden pork barrel, House members, including the party-list representatives who once denounced it, said their constituents needed it and wanted it. One congressman said their "primordial concern" in fighting for their pork barrel was "the welfare of their constituents."
They must have a tiny constituency, indeed. The biggest beneficiaries of the pork barrel can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Senator Panfilo Lacson, one of the few members of Congress who have given up their pork barrels, has provided details on how a lucky few profit from it. When a project is funded by the pork barrel, Lacson said, the legislator usually gets 20 percent of the cost of the project in kickbacks. The district engineer and other public works official get 10 percent; the governor or mayor, 5 to 10 percent; the “barangay” [village or neighborhood district] council chair, 2 percent; and the auditor, another 2 percent. Since the contractor also has to earn something, all that is left for the project is about 40 percent of the money allocated for it.
If Lacson's estimates are correct, then each House member must be pocketing as much as P14 million yearly from the pork barrel or P42 million over one three-year term. This probably explains why congressmen find it difficult to give up position as well as why they get reelected from one term to the next until they have to pass on the position to the wife or husband or one of the children.
Not surprisingly, too, House members now talk openly about their intense craving for pork as well as its misuse. For instance, Compostela Valley Representative Manuel Zamora, who rides a bike to attend sessions, admits (in jest, of course) that he accepts whatever contractors are willing to give since he is a mere “butiki” [house lizard]. But there are “bayawak” [iguanas] in the House who gobble up as much as 50 percent of the pork, he says. Ironically, Zamora made these revelations while urging the people to stop criticizing the pork barrel since they are like "manna from heaven" to those living in far-flung provinces.
Andaya, the head of the appropriations committee, talks about the P70-million allocation for each member as if it were small change. "Slim pickings," he calls it. "Crumbs don't make a feast."
But with 236 House members, those crumbs add up to P16.2 billion. Throw in the P200-million pork allocation for each senator and you have a mountain of crumbs worth more than P20 billion. Hardly slim pickings by any measure, and a monstrous misallocation of funds, given the P200-billion deficit projected for this year and the P5.4-trillion debt of the government and government institutions.
It was precisely to help stave off a financial crisis that the call was made for Congress to give up the pork barrel. That was supposed to be the lawmakers' contribution to the national effort to cut costs and raise revenues to narrow the budget deficit and shrink the public debt.
After declaring that the country was in the midst of a financial crisis, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced a number of cost-saving measures, including the streamlining of the bureaucracy. Then she announced the creation of about a dozen new offices with ill-defined functions. Now it is Congress' turn to act as if the twin problems of a widening deficit and mounting debts have been licked.
In the meantime, the citizens were told they would have to pay more in taxes, particularly on cigarettes and liquor and even oil products. They were also told to bear with the higher costs of electricity and water. All in the name of taming the runaway deficit and reducing the public debt. Apparently Malacañang and Congress want the Filipino people to foot the bill in full and make all the sacrifices.
posted by Dante at 12:00 AM
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