‘Pork’ restored, not padded — Speaker De Venecia
DAGUPAN CITY – With more revenues expected to be generated by the E-VAT, the congressmen now deserve to see their pork barrel restored to their original level.
This was the clarification issued by House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. on the charge that the additional P20 million pork barrel for each congressman had been railroaded into the new budget.
He said the amount represented what was slashed from their original allocation last year due to the country’s huge budget deficit.
“It (the cut) was our way of responding to the demands of fiscal crisis and huge budgetary deficit last year,” he pointed out.
“But now that the fiscal deficit has substantially decreased, the committee on appropriations restored the original P20 million,” De Venecia said. He added that with the “restored” P20 million making each congressman get a total of P60 million, is “still way below the original P70 million allocated annually”. The “restored pork barrel” of legislators increased the national budget by P4.7 billion.
De Venecia said congressmen’s pork barrel funds “are transparent because local officials like the mayors, vice mayors, councilors, barangay officials know where these are spent.”
In contrast, he said the people do not know where the senators’ yearly pork barrel fund of about P120 million is being spent. He said this is the reason why Majority Leader Prospero Nograles wrote the Commission on Audit about two weeks ago asking for an audit of senators’ pork barrel funds.
Four senators, however, have desisted from availing of their pork barrel, namely, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Joker Arroyo, Alfredo Lim and Senate President Franklin Drilon to help close the budget deficit.
He added that, “perennial problems have to be addressed because people expect their congressmen to bring home the bacon”. — EVA
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