At last, after many days of discussions, debates and protests, House Resolution No. 298 was filed by the Makabayan Coalition representatives BAYAN MUNA Representative Neri Colmenares, GABRIELA Women’s Party Representative Luz Ilagan, ACT Teachers Party-List Representative Antonio Tinio,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Representative Emmi de Jesus, ANAKPAWIS Representative Fernando Hicap, KABATAAN Representative Terry Ridon,
and BAYAN MUNA Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate
Republic
of the Philippines
HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES
Batasan
Hills, Quezon City
SIXTEENTH
CONGRESS
First
Regular Session
House
Resolution No. 298
Introduced
by
BAYAN MUNA Representative Neri Colmenares,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Representative Luz Ilagan,
ACT Teachers Party-List Representative Antonio
Tinio,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Representative Emmi de Jesus,
ANAKPAWIS Representative Fernando Hicap,
KABATAAN Representative Terry Ridon,
and BAYAN MUNA Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate
RESOLUTION
STRONGLY
URGING THE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT TO RESPOND TO THE PUBLIC CLAMOR FOR THE
ABOLITION OF THE PORK BARREL SYSTEM, ITEMIZE LUMP SUM FUNDS AND ALLOCATE THESE TO
BASIC SOCIAL SERVICES, SUBSTANTIAL SALARY INCREASES FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
AND JOB CREATION AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES STATED HEREIN
WHEREAS, the
nation is outraged with the expose of the massive pork barrel scandal in which at
least P10 Billion of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of five
senators and 24 congressmen were channelled to Janet Lim-Napoles’s bogus
non-government organizations (NGOs) for ghost projects and the host of abuses
of PDAF as revealed by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its Special Audit
Report 2007-2009;
WHEREAS, PDAF,
a Special Purpose Fund (SPF) subject to the discretion of the President with
regard to its release to individual legislators and that of the legislators’
with regard to its proceeds, is but a small portion of pork barrel and lump sum
discretionary funds in the national budget;
WHEREAS, according to University of the Philippines Professor
Leonor Briones, former head of the national treasury, the President has far
bigger pork barrel and lump sum discretionary funds including but not limited
to the P310 Billion Special Purpose Funds; P132 Billion “Malampaya funds”; P2.6
Billion remittances by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to
the President’s Social Fund; and the P12 Billion Motor Vehicle Users’ Charge
fund;
WHEREAS, aside from PDAF, presidential pork barrel or lump sum
funds have also been used for political patronage, bribery, and corruption such
as the P20 Billion Malampaya fund scam being investigated by the COA, the
questionable transactions involving hundreds of millions of PAGCOR funds under
both Genuino and Naguiat administrations, and the illegal use of hundreds of millions
of pesos of intelligence funds stripped from Philippine Charity Sweepstakes
Office (PCSO);
WHEREAS, under the Aquino's presidency, some P280
Billion of unobligated and unreleased funds and over-all savings of various
departments and agencies have been centralized and realigned subject to the
President's discretion, thus, making them another form of pork barrel/lump sum
in the hands of the President; DBM Circular 541 issued by Sec. Florencio Abad
mandates the impoundment by the President of the unobligated funds of
departments and government agencies in the middle of the year;
WHEREAS, pork
barrel system is a system of allocating and disbursing public funds to
perpetuate political patronage and is a massive source of corruption;
WHEREAS, the
President is the biggest holder and dispenser of pork barrel acting as patron
of favored government officials, politicians, influential persons, and other
groups and is using the pork barrel system to control Congress and buy votes;
the President’s hoard of pork and lump sum funds dwarfs that of the
Vice-President, senators and congressmen, and other elected and appointed
officials of various government agencies and units;
WHEREAS,
President Aquino, instead of discarding the pork barrel and lump sum
appropriations, has substantially increased it in the national budget; aside
from the Special Purpose Funds, he increased five-fold Arroyo’s conditional
cash transfer program to P62.6 Billion and introduced new forms such as the P20
B bottom-up budgeting projects, P7 B Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA)
program, and at least P4.8 Billion Public-Private Partnership funds;
WHEREAS,
widespread protests have erupted, like in the Million People March on 26 August
2013 when hundreds of thousands of people showed up in Luneta and in other
places nationwide and abroad to express their collective wrath against the
massive plunder of public funds through the pork barrel system in the midst of
unmitigated poverty, increased unemployment, and high costs of and extreme
shortages in education, health, housing, and other basic social services;
WHEREAS, the
people’s intensifying clamor is to abolish the pork barrel system, not just
PDAF but all forms of pork barrel of the Congress, the President, and the
various government agencies and rechannel the said funds to basic social
services, substantial salary and wage hikes, and job creation;
WHEREAS, studies
of progressive party-list groups identified at least P927.14 Billion of pork
barrel and lump sum appropriations that must be (1) rechanneled to basic social
services, government employees salary hikes, and job creation and (2) itemized
for purposes of instituting transparency and accountability; to wit:
(Data tables not shown)
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Congress abolish the entire pork barrel system by scrapping PDAF and all forms of congressional and
presidential pork barrel and by removing presidential discretion over
Malampaya funds, the remittances from PAGCOR and PCSO,
MVUC funds, and all Special Purpose Funds and other lump sum appropriations and
subjecting the same to Congress scrutiny and line item budgeting;
BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that the Congress enact a national budget that will truly
serve the needs of the people, by rechanneling PDAF, Malampaya, PAGCOR, MVUC,
CCT, PAMANA and PPP funds and other presidential pork to basic social services,
substantial hikes in government salaries, subsidies to farmers and job creation
as proposed above;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Congress nullify DBM
Memorandum Circular 541 on the impoundment of unobligated funds and remove from
the President's discretion unreleased and over-all savings and subject the same
to congressional appropriation and approval;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that recommendations, nominations
and any other forms of entitlement for individual legislators and the executive
department shall be prohibited and criminally proscribed;
BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that the Congress move to amend relevant laws governing
off-budget accounts as enumerated above by abolishing presidential discretion
over their disbursement and transferring them to the general fund for public
and congressional scrutiny and approval; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that these funds be rechanneled to basic social services, increase
of government salaries, job creation, and renewable energy.
Adopted,
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