Roll out the Pork Barrel for 2007

From Lito Banayo.

Joey Salceda cannot lie. Good for him. He admits that the House-approved version of the Dona’s budget provides an increase in the pork barrel allocations of each of them from P40 million to P70 million. And so everybody is happy, following the avowed dictum of their Speaker Joe, the "win-win" principle, with each senator allocated P200 million, up from the previous P120 million.

There’s no economic crisis, folks. Those who have to make do with P36 pesos a day or P13,140 pesos each year, can heave a sigh of relief. Swerte nyo, baka ambunan kayo ni congressman sa kanyang pork barrel. Those whose businesses are closing down, unable to keep up with high costs while facing market contraction because their market niche does not cater to the rich and powerful, try to smile. Congress has officially declared it, along with the Doña’s crew: The crisis is over.

But I like Salceda. He is candid and truthful. He also says that even while we were in "official" crisis, many congressmen actually got the same P70 million. Malacañang just gave them an additional P30 million, and perhaps delayed the release of the P40 million due to the opposition who signed the impeachment raps. Now you and I know who got the additional P30 million, perhaps more. Depends on how they defended the Doña during her political crisis. Because in truth, the Dona has the biggest pork barrel.


The focus shifts to the Senate come November when they tackle the budget. Will they join the pork barrel polka and accept P200 million apiece, minus the walang pakisamang Ping Lacson? How do billionaires like Manny Villar, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jamby Madrigal, Mar Roxas, and multi-millionaires like Ed Angara, the Estradas, Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, Jun Magsaysay, Dick Gordon, Joker Arroyo and others whose manifest wealth I cannot deduce, go about using these funds?

How can good governance ever be good when you have to spend P21 billion pesos on the basis of the personal discretion of 256 legislators? Why should mega-rich districts get the same as the dirt-poor districts of the ten poorest provinces in the country? Why should good streets in Metro Manila be torn apart so they can be "re-done" because their congressman needs to spend his pork barrel? While in Igbaras town in Iloilo, 22 people were swept away to their untimely death because a river had no bridge?