Noynoy PDAF `abolition’ misleading, protests to continue – UP community

PRESS RELEASE
August 24, 2013

Noynoy PDAF `abolition’ misleading, protests to continue – UP community

Concerned students, faculty, staff and residents of the University of the Philippines denounced the misleading announcement of President Noynoy Aquino as regards the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

In a press conference last August 23, Aquino said that it is now time to “abolish” PDAF and put in place a new mechanism to meet the needs of the people. Members of the Senate and the House of Representatves can still recommend projects but they will have to go through the process of finalizing the national budget.

The concerned UP community members said that Aquino’s policy pronouncement is just a “sugar-coated reform of the inherently flawed pork barrel system.”

In a statement, they stressed that the PDAF will just be repackaged, “such that the Congress will be at the behest of the Department of Budget and Management and the Office of the President.”

They called for the “just distribution and rechanneling of funds to basic social services, NOT a rehashed pork barrel system that is even more vulnerable to corruption. These funds must be allocated through public agencies such as public hospitals, state universities and colleges, public schools, salary upgrading of teachers and government workers, etc. The skewed regional allocations in the proposed budget must be realigned, with sufficient allocations for neglected regions in the Visayas and in Mindanao.”

In this context, they stressed the need for people to rage against “unbridled corruption” in government. “On August 26, we shall march from Liwasang Bonifacio to Rizal Park to Mendiola to decisively assert our resolve to abolish the presidential and congressional pork barrel and rechannel funds to basic social services!”

The statement was signed by the UP Faculty for the Abolition of the Presidential and Congressional Pork Barrel System, UP Kilos Na, Multi-Sectoral Alliance, Office of the Student Regent, Office of the Staff Regent and the University Student Council.

For verification and more information, please call Prof. Sarah Raymundo at (0939) 925-9368

STATEMENT

Marching On: UP Community for the Abolition of the Presidential and Congressional Pork Barrel System

We, the University of the Philippines community, strongly condemn the deceitful and misleading announcement of President Aquino to “abolish” the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and to institute, in its place, a supposedly “new” mechanism for allocation. This is a clear attempt to pacify and diffuse the just anger of the people and their clamor for the abolition of the pork barrel system and the rechanneling of funds to basic social services. In fact, PNoy’s proposal is by no means an abolition of the PDAF; rather, it is a sugarcoated reform of the inherently flawed pork barrel system. It drowns the more substantive problems of graft and corruption and patronage politics that result from this system. Worse, it conveniently leaves the president’s Special Purpose Funds, amounting to at least 310.1B, untouched, even increasing his discretionary power in the management of national funds.

In PNoy’s proposal, the congressional pork barrel (PDAF) will merely be repackaged, such that the Congress will continue to be at the behest of the Department of Budget and Management and the Office of the President. In the guise of transparency, the proposal actually places the PDAF under the stricter and more direct control of the President, making legislators more beholden to Malacanang. This farce is by no means an “abolition” but a perpetuation of the pork barrel system: it fortifies patronage politics both at the presidential and local levels, and violates constitutional principles by blurring the lines between the executive and legislative functions of government.

We are calling for just distribution and rechanneling of funds to basic social services, NOT a rehashed pork barrel system that is even more vulnerable to corruption. These funds must be allocated through public agencies such as public hospitals, state universities and colleges, public schools, salary upgrading of teachers and government workers, etc. The skewed regional allocations in the proposed budget must be realigned, with sufficient allocations for neglected regions in the Visayas and in Mindanao.

Let not the deceitful machinations of the PNoy Administration dampen our rage against unbridled corruption in government and attacks on our right to social services. On National Heroes Day, we shall continue the legacy of our heroes in upholding the people’s interests against the rich and the few who secure seats in government and reduce the national agenda to their own selfish interests. On August 26, we shall march from Liwasang Bonifacio to Rizal Park to Mendiola to decisively assert our resolve to abolish the presidential and congressional pork barrel and rechannel funds to basic social services!

Join the August 26 March from Liwasang Bonifacio to Luneta to Mendiola: 7AM mass-up at Quezon Hall, UP Diliman; 9AM meet-up at Liwasang Bonifacio and march to Rizal Park.