“A leadership which governs with vision and direction, with equitable economic development that lifts the lives of all and not a few as its goal, should abolish the practice of pork entitlement, and provide ‘beef’ where it is most needed”
Secretary Vince Dizon promises the 2027 budget of his department will be very transparent. The 2026 budget, reduced sharply by Congress, was not crafted by his team. It was more the opus of the now deceased Cathy Cabral, who served as undersecretary for planning under his immediate predecessor, Manuel Bonoan, who returned from the US of A earlier this week.
“We are already talking about making all of these requests public…because these are requests naman and I don’t think any mayor, congressman or governor will take it against anyone to make this request,” Dizon explained in a recent interview.
So instead of “allocables,” the secretary promises “wala nang lokohan.” No more secret “leadership funds” either. Everything will be open to public scrutiny when the DPWH submits its funding requests to the DBM for inclusion into the president’s budget (NEP).
This annual tug-of-war between the executive and legislative branches came about because every congressman, and every senator, except Ping Lacson who abjures pork (but loves a good steak), has to have his or her cut, to satisfy their constituents, to ensure their re-election or preserve their dynasty, and in recent manifestations, to “make hay,” tons and tons of it.
The rule of thumb is “hating kapatid,” everybody happy.
But that’s my beef against this age-old practice called the pork barrel system.
I am writing this article on a Sunday morning, prior to a flight for an out-of-country family trip, so I will not be able to watch the blow-by-blow in what Lacson promises to be a blockbuster Blue Ribbon hearing on the 19th.
I will not disturb my enjoying the company of grandkids playing in the snow just to watch more disturbing news from the benighted homeland.
The PSA might release more disturbing news while I am away.
I expect the GDP growth to be a little more or less 4 percent, far from the 5.5 percent target our economic managers had hoped for, with the second half of 2025 registering dismal growth, the holiday season notwithstanding. But that’s for another article.
“Hating kapatid” is not always the rule though, as Zaldy Co has amply demonstrated.
It may be one for you but three for Bicol. Or maybe “let me get an over-ride from your one, more if I give you two.”
“Enfant terrible” Leandro Leviste asks why his first district of Batangas got less than other districts with smaller populations and smaller land areas, only to discover, “mauvais miracle” that the pork-financed projects he inherited were so sub-standard at that.
The other “enfant terrible,” Kiko Barzaga, is not into pork though, preferring the company of cats, but his annoying “meows” got the dander of Ronnie Puno and their boss EKR.
My beef is simple: why do we give pork to wealthy districts of wealthy LGUs like Makati, or QC, Taguig or Manila, even Cebu or Davao, when we give paltry sums because every district has its entitlement, to other parts of Mindanao and the Visayas where underdevelopment sucks their neglected economies?
Even the new permutation of public works, which is a revival of the farm-to-market roads instead of flood control projects, is to be focused on Central Luzon, as the agriculture secretary who’s into fish more than plants, declared after a hefty budget increase.
Isn’t Central Luzon sufficiently built, if not over-built, with cris-crossing roads courtesy of DPWH? Same thing goes for Calabarzon, perhaps apart from neglected Quezon, but that’s another story.
DoTr is building a North to South commuter railway to connect Clark to Calamba, serving the most populous provinces in the country.
Taxpayers who will shoulder the massive loans to finance this major infrastructure are from Tarlac, Pampanga, Bulacan, NCR and Region 4. Why give them pork entitlements when they are already rich?
NCR has LRT’s galore, built through several decades of borrowing and spending, and in due time rather than soonest because Congress transferred counterpart funding for ODA’s into pork-funded flood control, a Metro Manila subway.
Everything is NCR-Region 3 and 4-centric, which is why Vis-Min is crying to federalize the islands.
Why not more roads in Agusan del Sur, where the mighty Agusan River passes, which will irrigate more palay production, even make a new lowland vegetable center for Mindanao?
Same thing goes for the Cotabato provinces, the two Lanaos, the Zamboanga peninsula, even Samar and Mindoro.
A leadership which governs with vision and direction, with equitable economic development that lifts the lives of all and not a few as its goal, should abolish the practice of pork entitlement, and provide “beef” where it is most needed.
That’s my beef against pork.
