WITH the ongoing litigation of suspected plunderers tagged in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, various organizations of lawyers in Davao City re-echoed a call to end corruption involving the embezzlement of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel.
Representatives from Bayan Muna, Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Davao, Free Legal Assistance Group (Flag), Ateneo Public Interest and Legal Advocacy (Apila), and Union of People's Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) aired their respective qualms on the issue of the pork barrel system in a press conference held at the IBP-Davao Lounge in Ecoland Thursday.
Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate told reporters Thursday, "As members of the legal community, we cannot just sit down and relax. Although we understand that there is still an ongoing cases questioning the constitutionality of the PDAF, the different lawyer organizations of Davao have united to intensify the call to end graft and corruption involving the pork barrel system."
Zarate said the Congress should be accountable and the judicial system should be persistent in prosecuting the people involved.
"We see impunity in the current situation. Just like impunity in human rights violations, this is an impunity in the budget. Without accountability, the officials will believe that they will get away with it," Zarate said.
Lawyer Jose Edgar Ilagan of IBP-Davao, meanwhile, said the investigations being conducted by the authorities should not stop at the collection of evidences.
"Rather, it should lead to the prosecution of the plunderers," he said.
"The Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) merely pass their audit reports to the Office of the Ombudsman. And due to the many cases that the Ombudsman reads, the violations of officials would take a long time before it is read," Ilagan said.
He said COA and DBM should do their job by filing a formal complaint if they see any discrepancies in the release and use of funds instead of just passing the audit reports without highlighting any violations.
Lawyers Manuel Quibod of Flag and January Faye Risonar-Bello of Apila, on the other hand, called for the information dissemination down to the grassroots level to let the public know why the pork barrel should be abolished.
Quibod said, "The people should know what the PDAF is and why it should be abolished. If more people are more knowledgeable about the PDAF and how it is prone to graft and corruption, more people would unite to protest against it."
Bello, meanwhile, said the voice of the people will be intensified once the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill will be passed.
"Transparency and accountability is not enough. Even though many have called for the said values, there is no realization of those values into a law such as the FOI Bill. If those people involved in the pork barrel scam are not accountable with their deeds, then the people could show their violation if they have access to the data of COA and DBM. But that is until the FOI Bill is passed," Bello said.
Lawyer Eduardo Estores of UPLM, for his part, said their group is calling for the rechanneling of the pork barrel funds to the people.
"Indeed they have done projects for their constituents. But these projects are just a small part of the supposed funds that they should be giving back to address the needs of their constituents. The congress and the president have made the government as their business instead," Estores said in vernacular.
The lawyers who attended the forum also conducted a ceremonial smashing of a piggy bank filled with peso bills signifying their support for the abolition of the pork barrel.