House inserts P46-B ‘pork’ in 2018 budget — lawmakers

Two leftist lawmakers yesterday claimed that the House of Representatives has realigned P46 billion in the 2018 budget, including a large amount of pork barrel funds.

“They made cuts in social services and insertions for additional congressional pork, notably in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD),” Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro of Alliance of Concerned Teachers said.

This was contrary to the assertion of House leaders and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that the 2018 national budget is “porkfree,” they said.

“We found a P6.95-billion increase in DPWH budget for ‘local programs,’ from P64.831 billion to P71.782 billion. We also note an increase in the budget of DSWD for ‘protective services for indi- viduals and families in difficult circumstances’ of P1.93 billion from P3.418 billion to P5.349 billion,” the lawmakers revealed.

“These are projects that have been nominated by legislators or programs with a post-enactment nature where politicians may have a say in identifying beneficiaries, thus making them as hidden pork. The House of Representatives received an additional P1.652 billion for operations,” they added.

They were also “alarmed at the increases in hidden pork and even more alarmed at the decreases in the budget for social services.”

Tinio and Castro pointed out that the Department of Education suffered the biggest reduction of P33.1 billion, from P126 billion to P93 billion, while funding for the Department of Transportation was cut by P8.2 billion.

The other agencies that had reductions included the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Information and Communications Technology, according to the two.

They also decried what they described as “lack of transparency in the manner in which the House made amendments” to the 2018 budget proposal.

They said a small committee that was tasked to finalize amendments did not inform members of the changes made.

The House put the proposed budget to a vote without giving members a list of amendments for their perusal, they said.

“The third reading vote was literally a rubber stamp vote,” they said, calling on senators to rid the budget of hidden pork.