The local pork

 

WHILE the “pork” of senators and congressional representatives are hogging (no pun intended) the limelight nowadays and public fury is actively throbbing, it would be an opportune time to zero in on another variety of the pork barrel – the “Development Funds” of local government units (LGUs).

These LGU development funds, the local equivalent of the much-ballyhooed Public Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), are appropriated by the local legislative bodies, the sanggunian. The appropriations are spent at the discretion of the mayors and vice mayors, and in some cities, including the councilors. Barangay chairmen and Sangguniang Kabataan chairmen also enjoy the same privilege. And just like the PDAF, many of the projects covered under this local development fund are reportedly over-priced, with cuts of course going into the pockets of elected officials, their favored contractors and suppliers, and whoever else is in the loop of covering up anomalies.

So as the investigation and legal cases get underway at the national level, a review of the reports of LGU resident auditors of the Commission on Audit, some of whom have reportedly already been co-opted by town and city officials, is imperative.

The public has always known of the corruption involved in pork, but there has never been a concrete case as scandalous as the one involving Janet Lim-Napoles and the P10 billion she allegedly filched in cahoots with certain senators and congressmen. And there has never been a time when public outcry against corruption has been this strong. The big case and all its drama will surely take a while to pan out. In the meantime, there’s the local pork that equally needs scrutiny.

 

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Cry of the moment

 

NEVER mind that the “Million People March” did not draw a million marchers. It was enough that almost 300,000 or so of our people converged at the Luneta Park in a singular, possibly potent, moment that, if this administration would react with utter complacency, might erupt into an “Edsa 3” People Power Revolt. Already, a second march has been set for Sept. 11.

The “Million People March” on Aug. 26 was but another symbolic stirrings of an angered, provoked, populace, showing their outrage over a political and volcanic social issue: the horrifying misuse of billions of pesos in pork barrel funds allegedly by our own lawmakers in cahoots with unscrupulous citizens led by Janet Lim-Napoles. Brutal even was the funds’ disbursement because the wads of cash intended to help alleviate the conditions of our poor had reportedly lined the pockets of government officials and legislators themselves in wild abandon.

Quite simply, the cry of the moment is, abolish the pork barrel system, not only selectively but rather, in its entirety.

This is yet the most acid test that the P-Noy administration has faced since 2010.

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