SENATOR Panfilo Lacson discovered a proverbial trove of pork insertions in the national proposed budget that opened up another can of worms in the government bureaucracy.
What is really disturbing is the propensity and audacity of some of our lawmakers and other government officials to tinker and meddle with the budget in their deluded thinking of watching over and being so called good stewards of the peoples’ money. Time and again they have failed to understand that putting and inserting lump sums in the national budget without any specific or directly identifiable purpose for which the said amounts have been appropriated is dangerously susceptible to abuse, misuse and corruption. How can these people be so smug in their actions when the President has already overemphasized his opposition to corruption.
Their deplorable action of inserting lump sums in the various offices of some lawmakers, ostensibly to fund projects of their respective districts, is a very clear indication that they do not care whether other regions will be left out without any budget for their infrastructure projects and programs and for that they should be put to task in explaining and justifying their actions. If they cannot provide a reasonable and justifiable excuse then they should be officially investigated to determine their real intention in inserting such amounts in the national budget.
For its part, the Department of Budget and Management should have been the first one to object vociferously to such insertions considering that they are the ones who are primarily preparing the national budget of the government. The DBM should at the very least feel slighted that their proposed budget which has been submitted to the Lower House in Congress should be tampered so carelessly by some lawmakers to the detriment of the people. Unless of course they are also complicit in such shenanigans.
Why cannot Congress come up with a law that would in essence permanently put a stop to the insertion of lump sums in the national budget? But then again come to think of it that would be like killing the goose that lays the golden egg for some of them.
The national government is mandated to use wisely the peoples’ money so that everybody ideally would at least obtain some measure of benefit from its usage.
The problem with some of our government officials is that they think and believe that the people’s money is simply a tool to be used to advance their vested interests. This is particularly true with our lawmaker politicians who, for a lot of them, would claim that projects or programs implemented in their districts are realized because of their “initiative” or of their own making and design. This if of course utterly preposterous and simply reveals that until now even in this modern age and era our country is still burdened with so called patronage politics.