Senators allied with JPE get biggest ‘pork’
Figures have shown that the bloc associated with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile – who all voted to convict former chief justice Renato Corona – have been recipients of the biggest pork barrel fund releases so far.
Data provided by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) indicated that Enrile himself got the biggest total releases, with P104 million out of the P200-million priority development assistance fund (PDAF) that is allotted for each senator every year.
Three other members of this group, or the so-called “JPE bloc” – Senators Gringo Honasan, Jinggoy Estrada and Tito Sotto – have al- ready received half of their PDAF allocations, or exactly P100 million each.
All four, along with 16 others, voted to remove Corona from the Supreme Court.
Only three senators – Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – voted to acquit the former chief magistrate.
Of the 23 senators, only two – Joker Arroyo and Panfilo Lacson – have not been released their PDAF as they themselves have “publicly waived” these entitlements.
Other senators who got more than P100 million were Lito Lapid who received the exact amount; and Pia Cayetano with P188.1 million, but only because P124 million of this came from her 2011 PDAF, and that she only got P63.7 million for this year.
Sen. Francis Escudero received a total of P97 million; Ramon Revilla, P86 million; Santiago, P80 million; Franklin Drilon, P72 million; Koko Pimentel, P59 million; Alan Peter Cayetano, P57 million; and Manny Villar, P50 million; Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, P37 million; Francis Pangilinan, P29.5 million; Edgardo Angara, P25 million; Marcos, P15.2 million, and Sergio Osmeña III a measly P2.3 million. Senators Loren Legarda and Antonio Trillanes only got P10 million each because their PDAF requests had “technical deficiencies.”
Sen. Ralph Recto has yet to receive his pork barrel funds, until after he has complied with the technical requirements.
Abad: Not all senators got
their pork
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad denied the accusations hurled by Santiago that the votes of the 20 senators who convicted Corona were borne out by pork barrel fund releases.
“We categorically deny the allegations made by Sen. Santiago (that) PDAF allocations of senators were released in exchange for votes to convict Corona,” the DBM chief said in a statement.
He said that pork barrel funds of “20 of 23 senators have been released – whether they voted to convict or acquit the erstwhile chief justice.”
“In fact, the 20 senators include Sen. Santiago herself: to date, already P80 million has been released for her various PDAF projects as requested by her office,” Abad disclosed.
The same is true with Marcos, who also voted for Corona’s acquittal.
“The three senators who have no PDAF releases charged against their allocations are Recto, who has not submitted any request yet; and Senators Arroyo and Lacson, who have publicly waived PDAF allocations for their projects,” Abad stressed.