Goodbye Pork

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Voting 13-0, the justices of the Supreme Court unanimously denied the appeal of Malacañang on its decision in July last year declaring as unconstitutional the withdrawal of unobligated allotments from implementing agencies and their use as savings before the end of a fiscal year. It also declared unconstitutional the cross border transfer of savings of the executive to augment funds of agencies outside the department.

The high court, however, did reverse its ruling on the act under the Disbursement Acceleration Program pertaining to the funding of projects, activities and programs not covered by any appropriation in the General Appropriations Act. It also absolved direct “proponents” and “implementors”’ of DAP-funded projects of culpability and  this development essentially marks the end of that funding loophole and, hopefully, prevents similar programs from being conceptualized and implemented.

The Supreme Court has now struck down the two pork barrels that have been identified and, most likely, misused by unscrupulous politicians. The Priority Development Assistant Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program are no more. As we continue to seek accountability and justice for the billions of pesos of taxpayer’s money that has been misused, we can hope that the Aquino administration can lick its wounds, find its bearing, and, with renewed vigor, continue to clean up and institutionalize reforms in the budgeting and disbursement process to prevent similar pork barrels from being created, and budgeting loopholes from being exploited.

The Philippines has gone a long way from the days of deliberately reenacted national budgets that open the door for trickery and institutionalized annual and unaudited pork barrels for legislators. Imagine the moral ground the Aquino administration would be standing on had it not succumbed to the temptation of inventing DAP, as it struggled with the realities in transitioning to a government system without pork.

This is why, as the Aquino administration winds down and goes into legacy mode, it should welcome the SC ruling and focus on steering the country’s budgeting system back to the straight path they promised to take  on as well as making it more robust against further attempts to exploit the system.*