Transparent pork?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

One of the internal reform programs of the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Prospero Nograles is said to be the launching of a website where the public can check on how the annual P70-million pork barrel funds of our congressmen are being spent.  According to Speaker Nograles, the website will contain the details of every congressman’s countrywide development fund and provide a tracking mechanism on the status of their CDF-funded projects.

The countrywide development fund, which is better known as the notorious pork barrel, if you ask congressmen, is heaven sent because it is responsible for providing scholarships, building classrooms, post-harvest facilities, bridges, highways, irrigation facilities, and hospitals. However, critics of the pork barrel repeatedly question the fund. They also point out that it is highly irregular for a legislative body such as the Congress and Senate, to have such unrestrained power of the purse.

Although outright termination would be the ideal solution to a system as flawed as the pork barrel system, these latest pronouncements and plans to introduce more transparency are undoubtedly a welcome development.  Let us hope that this proposal does not die the natural death of ousted Speaker Jose De Venecia’s eerily similar suggestion last October 2007, when he called for a “moral revolution” and offered to publicize the pork barrel funds of the 238 congressmen and open to audit the disbursements of the House.

Calls for the termination of the pork barrel would be greatly diminished if the stewards responsible for allocating and disbursing what is essentially the people’s money would be more transparent.

All the claims of all the benefits and beneficiaries of the pork barrel can never be taken seriously as long as we the people are not allowed to see just exactly how our so-called representatives are spending our money.

The nation will be watching closely to see if Speaker Nograles can pull off what his predecessors have failed to do in making the controversial pork barrel transparent, and the representatives responsible for that fund finally accountable to their constituents.*