LAWMAKERS on Monday expressed hope that the P80 million in pork barrel funds to be allocated to each lawmaker will be used following Supreme Court guidelines.
And former speaker and Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr. agreed with incoming Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez that it would be improper to call pork barrel funds “pork.”
“Projects are going to be specified in the budget. It is not pork,” Belmonte said in a text message.
Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said the lump-sum congressional allocation will be identified through line-item budgeting and therefore will not be a source of corruption.
He said “Thank you, if that is true” on the reported P10-million increase for each legislator.
He said the pork barrel funds were needed by congressman to implement the needed programs and projects in their districts.
Belmonte also welcomed the increase in congressional entitlements.
“I am appreciative of the gesture of President [Rodrigo] Duterte,” Belmonte said.
Alvarez confirmed last week that P80 million in congressional entitlements would be given to each congressman under the soon-to-be-proposed P3.3-trillion national budget for 2017.
Alvarez, the representative of Davao del Norte, said lawmakers would still exercise power to submit, propose and identify projects for their legislative districts in next year’s national budget, but appealed not to call their entitlement pork barrel.
“Congressmen will be allowed to propose projects needed in their districts so it can be included in line budgeting,” Alvarez said earlier.
He also said the new national budget would no longer contain lump-sum allocations after the Supreme Court declared it illegal in 2013.
Lawmakers are barred by the high court “to intervene, assume or participate in any of the various post-enactment stages of the budget execution.”
The Court stripped lawmakers of their power to allocate congressional entitlements based on a “menu” provided by the Budget Department.
On Sunday, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said Duterte granted the pork-barrel increase to spur infrastructure development in the countryside, and was set to discuss the issue with senators on Tuesday.