The failure of Congress to ratify the bicameral conference committee bill on Freedom of Information (FOI) last Friday, June 4, 2010, is consistent with their failure to provide the public information about how they use their pork barrel funds. As part of its pork barrel watch project (PDAF Watch), CODE-NGO wrote letters to 269 congresspersons and 24 senators to request information on how they used their Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) and congressional allocations from 2007 to 2009. More than 6 months after and despite follow-up calls, only 7 congresspersons and 2 senators have replied.
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The Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) lamented the ingrained lack of accountability and transparency of the House of Representatives in its Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or pork barrel funds. “Their failure to ratify the bicameral conference committee bill on Freedom of Information (FOI) last Friday, June 4, 2010, is consistent with their failure to provide the public information about how they use their PDAF funds”, stated Patrick Lim, coordinator of the CODE-NGO supported “PDAF Watch”. PDAF Watch, an anti-corruption effort, monitors the use of the so-called pork barrel funds which amount to around 70 Million Pesos per congressperson per year and P200 Million Pesos for each senator.
As part of PDAF Watch, CODE-NGO sent letters in November 2009 to the 269 congresspersons and 24 Senators requesting for information on their use of their allocations for PDAF and their congressional allocations (CA) in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the year 2007, 2008 and 2009. More than six months after and despite follow-up calls and re-sending of the letters as requested by some congresspersons, only 7 congresspersons and 2 senators have replied. These include Congresspersons Elpidio Barzaga (Cavite, 2nd District), Mauricio Domogan (Baguio City), Cresente Paez (Party List: COOP-NATCCO), Juan Edgardo Angara (Aurora), Oscar Francisco (Party List: Alliance for Rural Concerns) and Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo (1st District, Camarines Sur), Speaker Prospero Nograles (Davao City) and Senators Joker Arroyo and Mar Roxas. Only Congresspersons Barzaga, Domogan and Angara actually provided information on their PDAF and CA allocations. Congresspersons Paez and Francisco as well as Senators Arroyo and Roxas declared that their PDAF/CA allocations have not been released. On the other hand, Congressman Dato Arroyo and Speaker Nograles only stated that information on their PDAF funds may be found in the website of the House of Representatives.
After PDAF Watch’s first reports in 2006 and 2007, which also highlighted the lack of transparency of the legislators’ pork barrel funds, the House of Representatives included in their website starting in 2007 the reports of the congresspersons about their PDAF.
However, despite the replies of Cong. Arroyo and Speaker Nograles stating that information may be found in the HoR website, only a minority of the 269 Representatives bothered to submit and post reports on-line – only 109 (40% of the total) submitted their project highlights for 2007, 37 or 14% submitted their project highlights for 2008, with 23 congresspersons reporting both for 2007 and 2008. No congressperson has yet submitted reports for 2009.
Sixto Donato C. Macasaet, Executive Director of CODE-NGO added that “It is important to note that the reluctance to provide information on the pork barrel funds seems to be also shared by the executive departments like the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)”. CODE-NGO also sent separate letters in November 2009 to the DBM and DPWH to request for information on the PDAF funds of the congresspersons and senators for the years 2007, 2008, and 2009. Again despite repeated follow-up calls and even personal visits to both agencies, they have yet to receive any information from the DBM and only information on projects in the Visayas for 2007 and 2008 from the DPWH.
“When we did the PDAF Watch in 2006, there was no problem with getting data from the DBM. In fact, it was posted in the DBM website for all to access”, recalled Macasaet. However, soon after former Secretary Emy Boncodin resigned from DBM together with the other Hyatt 10 members, the DBM stopped the practice of posting PDAF releases on its website. Thus, latest data on PDAF projects on the DBM website is only up to 2006. “At least, when we last called DBM in early June, they said that they are now in the process of encoding the data on PDAF releases so these can again be available on their website”, Macasaet added.
“We have called on President-elect Noynoy Aquino to ensure that the right to information of citizens becomes an urgent priority in his Administration. We believe that transparency in government projects and transactions is essential to his vows to fight corruption and promote people power”, Lim declared.
7 June 2010