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Saturday, November 20, 2004
Roperos: After the mea culpa
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Stunning was the word that immediately came to my mind yesterday when I read the front page story in a national daily stating that after all the promise of restraint in spending the people’s taxes, our lawmakers have, after all, agreed to continue with their profligacy.
Thus, they are retaining in the 2005 budget their pork barrel of P70 million each for House members and P200 million each for the senators.
Truth to tell, when the President the other week announced that the Philippines was already out of the fiscal crisis, I suspected something afoot. I felt it was quite too soon that the country would be able to overcome the crisis without having done any concrete move to hurdle the awesome deficit.
In fact, there was this report the economy suffered a balance of payment deficit in October, compared to the same period last year. The country’s 10-month BOP position showed “a deficit of $184 million, reversing a surplus of $162 million in the same period last year,” said the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas.
Now, I do not know what this comparative figures indicate to our legislators, but to me it shows that our export sales this year are much lower than the previous year, indicating a slowdown, which should add to our dilemma over a sluggish performance of the economy.
This reality should certainly not be any reason for our lawmakers to celebrate over the announcement that we are already out of the dark, since the general tone of the country’s economy is gloomy, and in fact, it appears to be still hobbling.
And if our belief is borne out true, why should our senators and congressmen celebrate by extending to them millions of pesos to squander? I do not really think this fair to the taxpayers, and even non-taxpayers who suffer deep material want.
Of course, there is the basic rational that the total amount appropriated for the pork barrel, when expended in the countryside, would mean letting the people have a taste of the taxes they paid.
The total pork barrel fund is P20 billion a year, a mere fraction, they say, of the P113 billion losses a year the Napocor incurs.
However, the one oft repeated single objection to the pork barrel is, as pointed out in a national daily report, the fact that it has been “a source of enrichment for unscrupulous legislators who receive kickbacks from contractors handling their pet projects.”
There should be no doubting the fact that this observation is true. Perhaps not all, but most of the senators and congressmen practice this, simply because they have to recover the tremendous expense they underwent for their election.
Thus, despite the request of the President that the legislators should slash by 40 percent their pork barrel, they turned deaf ears. The cut, according to the budget secretary, would have saved some P10 billion, representing half of the total amount the President would have wanted to save.
Unfortunately, the appropriations committee heeded the clamor of most House members and opted to go for the total retention of the P70-million pork barrel for each congressman.
With the House lead, the Senate has reportedly signified to follow suit, with only 24 of them dividing the P10 billion.
And that’s it. Vive le Maison, vive le pork barrel!
(November 20, 2004 issue)
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