PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III is the only one left who is not willing to let go of his own "pork barrel," opposition lawmakers said, as Vice President Jejomar Binay decided to junk P200 million allocated to his office for locally-funded projects.
"The House is pushing for the abolition of pork and the Senate has also resolution for its abolition. The President is the only one left standing. With him having the largest pork, he should say, 'ako rin, I will let go of my pork, masama 'yang pork at nakaka-high blood," Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares said during the weekly briefing of the House minority bloc.
The Office of the Vice President's social services budget is said to be sourced from the unused pork barrel of President Aquino when he was a senator.
"We commend Vice President Binay for this statesman act for responding to the clamor of the times. This puts even more pressure to President to emulate the act and follow suit and give up his presidential fund," ACT Teachers party-list Representative Antonio Tinio said.
On Tuesday, members of the House committee on appropriations decided to scrap the P25.2-billion allocation for their priority development assistance funds (PDAF) from the proposed national budget for 2014.
The decision came following the public's outrage over the reported misuse of PDAF or pork barrel. Billions of pesos were supposedly funneled to dubious non-government organizations by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, who is now jailed for illegal detention charges.
According to the Kabataan party-list, Aquino is entitled to P1.3-trillion of presidential pork, including Special Purpose Funds worth P310 billion, unprogrammed funds worth P139 billion and automatic appropriations worth P796 billion, among others.
The President himself suspended the release of PDAF pending the resolution of the controversial multi-billion pork barrel scam. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)