STOP CORRUPTIONS: Abolish Pork Barrel!

Jul 16, 2013 Press release : Makabayan bloc: Abolish the pork barrel system! Challenges Pres. Aquino to delete presidential pork in 2014 budget http://www.bayanmuna.net/makabayan-bloc-abolish-the-pork-barrel-system-challenges-pres-aquino-to-delete-presidential-pork-in-2014-budget/

Best remedy for cancer is to remove it fully from the body by surgical method and/or radio/(chemio Teraphy. Corruption is a cancer in our society and it is rooted in lust for money in many forms. This social cancer has reached the stage where society itself will be very much hurt and could even be fatal if not cured soon.

How so? Why was it not treated till now?

The Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan (MAKABAYAN) in a press release on 16 July 2013 said “Once again, corruption involving the so-called “pork barrel” is in the news. The alleged diversion of legislators’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and other lump sum funds of government by the JLN Corporation to bogus NGOs for ghost projects amounting to a mind-boggling P10 billion could very well prove to be one of the biggest corruption rackets in our nation’s history.”

Corruption is a throwback from our national history in the Spanish and American colonial era when currying favors from government and/or church authorities was in vogue. As one American businessman said, everything and everyone has its price. A village chieftain could be bought with a parcel of land or powerful position if he will help the conquistador subjugate other Filipinos. Revolutionary leaders has been bought by the Americans to surrender the newly acquired national sovereignity by signing secret treaties or assassinating other influential leaders. It is all in our history, though much efforts to cover it with distortions of fact and brazen lies has been done by Philippine and American authorities, parts of our history was willfully distorted to obscure what has been done. But still some are not convinced and continue to unearth the true facts. Corruptions and treacheries was there and the perpetrators iare still grinning at us.

In the current times, corruptions has been a daily bread so that people just ignored it or it passes unnoticed. It has became the “normal” procedure when dealing with business with the government. Government officials, from Presidential level down to baranggay levels are involved. And the common denominator almost always, the Pork Barrels, Government subsidies, anything where money is involved.

I fully agree with MAKABAYAN words “Pork barrel funds have long been recognized as a massive source of graft and corruption. Kickbacks (the so-called “S.O.P”) are seen as the cost of doing politics as usual. It is the pork barrel system that enables the patronage politics that pervades all levels of government, from the barangays to Malacañang. The Aquino administration has proven itself to be no less adept than its predecessor at making use of PDAF and other lump sum funds as a tool for imposing its will on Congress, reducing its role to a mere rubber stamp on many issues.

In short, the pork barrel system is a form of institutionalized patronage and officially tolerated graft and corruption. Contrary to claims by other legislators that more and better safeguards can be implemented to prevent abuse, the current scam proves that the pork barrel system is beyond salvaging and should be abolished.”

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