WOULD you trust Gloria Arroyo with a blank check for P25 billion? Senators would not and they should ensure that the gargantuan "pork" is excised from the 2006 budget or realigned for other socially desirable but transparently implemented projects.
There are three programs Arroyo wants to launch where selection of projects and release of money will be completely under her discretion. These are Kilos Asenso with a proposed funding of P5 billion, Kalayaan Barangay with P3 billion, and Healing the Wounds of Edsa with P13.7 billion. The funding requirements total P23.7 billion although senators have rounded off Gloria’s pork barrel to P25 billion to include, we suppose, her traditional discretionary funds.
Budget Secretary Romulo Neri said the P5 billion Kilos Asenso fund is for counter-part funding for development projects of local government units. The P3 billion Kalayaan Barangay fund is for the rehabilitation of barangays in conflict areas. The P13.7 billion Edsa healing fund is for social services to indigents.
As Sen. Manuel Villar, chairman of the finance committee, and Senate President Frank Drilon said, these are good programs on paper. But why can’t the projects be undertaken by regular departments?
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said the Edsa healing fund is supposed to bankroll pharmacies in far-flung areas, medical care for indigents and, incongruously enough, purchases of police patrol cars. Enrile wondered how health care and police cars could remotely salve the social wounds arising from Edsa 1 and Edsa 2.
What is Gloria up to in wanting to have P25 billion in spending money for 2006?
The funds for agricultural productivity and for the repair of roads – estimated at around P4 billion in all – were shamelessly hijacked in 2004. But at least we reasonably knew where they went. There were elections in 2004 and the money was used to buy the support of congressmen and local officials. There was allegedly a systematic skimming off through overpricing, but the proceeds, again we are reasonably sure, went to the campaign kitty of Arroyo and not into the pockets of the Pidals of this administration.
Top of the head we can only think of one Arroyo initiative this year that would need that never-as-yet-seen magnitude of discretionary spending. We’re referring to the proposed constitutional changes. The proposed shift to the parliamentary system is supposed to end once and for all the legitimacy issue hounding the administration after the cheating in 2004.
The local officials are the key to delivering the "yes" votes in a referendum. The sum of P25 billion is not too expensive a price for ensuring Gloria’s continued stay in power.
That’s all there is to this P25 billion pork.
-- Malaya Editorial, Nov 16, 2005
After using the Agri funds and the Road User's Tax on her 2004 Presidential Campaign, now she wants MORE MONEY to spend to buy support for her proposed constitution. Her previous actions on spending and diverting funds point to that direction.
Malacanang's reaction: P25B not pork!
Plus: E-VAT swak sa Pork ni Gloria.
And what happened to the Marcos Millions?
Gloria bankrupts Marcos billions, misspends funds on polls
By Angie M. Rosales
Wednesday, 11 16, 2005
The recovered Marcos billions that were once in escrow but released by order of the Davide Court, are no more, with the Senate having discovered, through the admission of Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Romulo Neri that the tens of billions in Marcos Swiss deposits have been spent by President Arroyo.
At the start of the budget hearings at the Senate last Monday, Neri admitted that there was nothing left from the P35-billion ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family. He said the Marcos funds turned over to the Philippine government by a Swiss bank have already been spent.
Neri added all that is left of the recovered Marcos money is P8 billion for the human rights victims of the Marcos regime.
The recovered amount from the Marcos ill-gotten wealth was originally $623 million, but interest accrued to the Swiss account and the recovered funds swelled to $718 million. The amount was previously held in escrow by the Philippine National Bank until the Supreme Court finally awarded it to the Arroyo government in 2003.
Based on DBM documents, the Marcos funds were broken down as follows: $1.452 million in cash; $598.299 million invested in bonds; $23.337 million invested in stocks; and $95.676 million in interest accrued.
Documents earlier submitted by the DBM to the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC) indicated that as of Jan. 30, 2004, “the status of the proceeds from the Marcos ill-gotten wealth” was stiil at P35 billion.
A sum of P17.32 billion was said to have been appropriated to the Department of Agrarian Reform for fiscal year 2004 and another P9.7 billion was appropriated for the same agency this year, the documents revealed.
But Senate President Franklin Drilon noted that the documents also revealed that a sum of P4.9 billion from the Marcos funds was disbursed by Malacañang on April 26, 2004, a month before the 2004 May presidential elections, which point to Mrs. Arroyo having used the Marcos funds for her election campaign as well.
Earlier, Minority Leader Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel said he had received reports that P570 million of the recovered ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses was released to the farm modernization program to cover up the diversion of P728 million in fertilizer funds to the campaign kitty of Mrs. Arroyo last year.
Pimentel added that he was told by sources at the Department of Agrarian Reform that the P570 million was allegedly transferred to the Department of Agriculture in the guise of funding programs under various “memorandums of agreements” inked by senior officials of the two agencies.
Malaya Reports: Where did P27B in Marcos funds go? Drilon asks Palace
Eto pa: P27B pa'no ginastos sa 2 taon?
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