Ping urged to question ‘pork’ in budget before SC

A leader of the House of Representatives yesterday urged Sen. Panfilo Lacson to question before the Supreme Court (SC) pork barrel items he claims still exist in the P3.35-trillion 2017 national budget.

House appropriations committee chairman and Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles made the call after Lacson revealed that more than P8 billion in “pork” he removed from the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways has been returned to the DPWH.

“Sen. Lacson can pursue his plan to bring the case to the Supreme Court so this issue is resolved based on factual and legal basis and not on mere speculations,” Nograles said.

He denied Lacson’s claim that there are still pork barrel items in the national budget.

“That’s not true. There is no pork barrel. There is no PDAF in the budget. There are no post-enactment projects in the budget. You will only see specific line-item projects that have been identified by different agencies and departments of government. I think Sen. Lacson is confused about this issue,” Nograles said, referring to the Priority Development Assistance Fund.

PDAF was the official name of the congressional pork barrel. It allocated P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each House member.

The SC declared PDAF unconstitutional in November 2013. It ruled that lawmakers could not intervene in the implementation of projects funded in the budget.

“We complied with the SC decision on the pork barrel. If anything, we have made doubly sure that projects and programs are even more specific so there will be no room at all for post-enactment interventions by lawmakers. The budget book is a public document open to scrutiny by anyone,” Nograles said.

He denied Lacson’s claim that congressmen reduced the calamity fund and diverted the funds to their pork barrel.

He said as of Oct. 31 last year, the calamity fund still had a balance of P30 billion.

“This fund will be carried over to 2017. So adding this to the new 2017 appropriation of P15.8 billion, the total calamity fund at government’s disposal for 2017 will be more than P40 billion. So in reality, there is no slashing of fund as claimed by Sen. Lacson,” Nograles said.

During the Senate-House conference on the budget, Lacson removed more than P8 billion in pork barrel funds from the DPWH and returned it to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

As a compromise, the amount was later allocated to the Commission on Higher Education for additional scholarship funds.

On Wednesday, Lacson revealed the DPWH has regained P8.6 billion, which he said was taken from the calamity fund.