Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Malilong: It’s the pork By Frank Malilong The Other Side
HERE we go again.
Within days after the release of the results of a census that showed Philippine population soaring to 88.57 million as of August, 2007 (from 76.5 million in 2000), our congressmen, as if on cue, revived calls to have their honorable tribe increased. Some of the noisiest are from Cebu.
Our Constitution provides that membership in the House of Representatives shall not exceed 250, unless otherwise fixed by law. We all know who makes the law, of course.
The United States Constitution grants the same power to its Congress to apportion seats in the House according to population. The US legislature has periodically increased its membership until 1911 when it fixed the size at 435.
The number rose to 437 in 1959 with the entry of Alaska and Hawaii but was pared back to 435 four years later. That has been so ever since.
As of April 16, 2008, US population was 303,868,496. Since the US Constitution entitles a district with a population of at least 30,000 to be represented in Congress, the House should have by now at least 10,000 members if the US congressmen had been similarly minded as our own.
Obviously, the US Congress believes that bigger does not necessarily mean better and rightly so. The legislative process is, however, farthest from the minds of our congressmen when they ask for a re-districting. Just listen to their argument. It’s not about law-making, stupid; it’s about the pork barrel.
One of the sorriest things that have evolved out of Congress is the distortion of the function of the office of congressmen. He doesn’t just make laws; he also dispenses largesse. Thus, a congressman’s success is not measured by the number of bills he has filed but by the number of bridges and school buildings that he has built, the roads that he has paved and the multi-cabs that he has distributed.
Not their fault, they will tell you. It’s dealing with political reality. You need the people to appreciate your performance in order to get re-elected and the only way to secure that is to bring projects to the district.
Under this mindset, increasing, even doubling, the number of congressmen looks desirable. The more representatives you have from Cebu, the more money you can get through their countryside development funds.
What we have missed is that every congressman added also means additional expense. And what makes us think that only we are entitled to more representation?
Come to think of it, aren’t we like the dog who is happy for the meal that his master prepared out of his own tail?
