Cayetano to scholars, indigents: ‘There’s life after pork’
PANGASINAN scholars and indigent patients assisted by the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), have been assured by Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter S. Cayetano that with the latter’s abolition, he will seek a better system for their benefit.
Cayetano has already asked the national government to establish a “pork-free” system of financing to sustain the thousands of scholars and indigent patients now wallowing in uncertainty with the demise of the congressional pork barrel system.
“There is life after pork for scholars and indigent patients. I believe there is more than enough funds and more than enough ways to give them what they need without giving politicians any discretion about it,” Cayetano assured.
The senator’s request was contained in a letter to Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, where he asked the national government, through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), to set aside funds for scholars and indigent patients.
Cayetano wrote that while he expressed full support to the Supreme Court’s decision declaring PDAF as unconstitutional, he pleaded for the immediate “unintended and undesirable effects,” mainly the cessation of assistance extended to scholars and ailing indigent citizens requiring medical assistance.
He proposed that the DBM establishes a system that would allocate funds to the various government hospitals to provide medical assistance to indigent patients as well as to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for scholarships across the country.
He said that some 412,078 scholarships will be affected now that the PDAF has been abolished while some 809,372 indigent patients are being assisted by the pork barrel system.
“While we have a responsibility to the Filipino people to abolish a system that has perpetuated corruption in our country, we are also duty-bound to help those who rely on these funds for assistance and ensure that these funds go directly to them,” Cayetano stressed.
The majority leader, however, advised Abad that any system establishing aid for scholars and indigent patients should remove any discretion on the part of lawmakers and politicians on its use and to ensure “that there is no room for any circumvention of the SC decision on the PDAF.”
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