Pork Busters!

I've been critical of Sassy Lawyer before and I disagree with her on most issues. But I think she's right about this.

Scrap the pork barrels.

Money quote:

So, our dear legislators will be receiving their pork barrel allocations in full this year. And, based on a report in The Philippine Star last week, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye announced that it was only reasonable considering that 2007 is an election year. I couldn’t quite decide whether it was a Freudian slip or a manifestation of the face of today’s politics. Was it an unintended disclosure or have politicians finally decided to admit, once and for all, the nature of pork barrel funds?

Heh. Buking sila ano?

Minor error. Si joey salceda ang nagbigay ng comment na yon, hindi si bunye.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, told reporters yesterday that his panel would restore pork barrel funds for next year to P70 million for congressmen and P200 million for senators.

He was commenting on the clarification made by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. that under President Arroyo’s proposed P1.136-trillion budget for next year, House members would each have P40 million only, and not P70 million as Salceda claimed last Friday.

Malacañang cut the lawmakers’ allocations to P40 million for House members and P120 million for senators two years ago due to the financial difficulties the nation was then facing.

Two years ago, may bawas sa pork barrel raw and that's nice to hear. But if you read the whole article and dig deeper, you'll notice na ang opposition lang talaga ang may bawas sa pork barrel nila.

Salceda said while pork barrel allocations were reduced two years ago, pro-administration congressmen have actually been receiving an additional P30 million from the Palace, bringing their annual pork barrel funds to a total of P70 million.

He said the restoration of such funds to their original levels "is reasonable, since next year is an election year."

Actually, the pro-Arroyo congressment are receiving P75 mil in pork, and the opposition gets P40 mil. From Malaya:

AN opposition congressman yesterday said Malacañang has already released P7 million worth of dole-outs for majority congressmen in exchange for their votes against the second impeachment complaint against President Arroyo, which the House minority bloc would file next month.

Rep. Rolex Suplico (LDP, Iloilo) said the administration has dangled P5 million worth of "soft" projects which is part of their pork barrel funds, P1 million in scholarships from the Commission on Higher Education, and another P1 million each as their share in the road users’ tax.

"This early, the administration has started buying support of majority congressmen. We condemn the use of pork to kill the impeach complaint," he said.

Suplico said that in Region 6, he was the only congressman who was not allocated the same releases for being a member of the opposition.

Suplico has said that congressmen who voted against the impeachment last year were allocated P35 million more worth of pork barrel funds.

From P70 million per congressman in 2004, the congressional pork barrel went down to P40 million in 2005 because of the fiscal crisis and yet, Suplico said, "those who voted to kill the impeachment, including the famous `Palakpak Boys,’ got additional releases."

These releases are composed of P20 million from the DPWH, P10 million from the road user’s tax and another P5 million from the DPWH as "Christmas bonus."

no wonder a few opposition congressmen absented themselves or failed to vote for impeachment last year and this year.

Previous posts:

- Campaign Issues for the 2007 elections
- Abolish Pork barrel politics
- Who's more believable when they call for the people to sacrifice?