By Charlie V. Manalo
The Daily Tribune

NOY GIVEN UNTIL END OF SEPT. TO RELINQUISH PORK

Moves to impeach President Aquino over his insistence on maintaining his pork barrel funds despite the public call for the removal of all discretionary items in the budget gained headway as a militant group said yesterday it would support and campaign for any initiative that will impeach Aquino for refusing to scrap the pork barrel of his office and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) despite the public outrage generated by the P10-billion pork barrel scam authored by the detained Janet Lim-Napoles.

In a statement, Salvador France, vice chairman of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), said the filing of impeachment complaint against Aquino is necessary to frustrate the current leadership from pursuing pork barrel in the name of the ruling syndicate in and out of Malacañang.
An influential religious group, meanwhile, gave Aquino until the end of the month to totally abolish the pork barrel that would entail the giving up of his own discretionary funds worth nearly P500 billion “or face more protests.”

An official of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) said Aquino should decide “the soonest” as Congress deliberates on the proposed P2.268 trillion national budget.

“While the Congress deliberates on the budget, we must remain vigilant because that’s where the hocus pocus is happening,” said Fr. Marlon Lacal, AMRSP executive secretary.

The so-called Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives made up of left-leaning partylist legislators plans to file the impeachment case against Aquino as a result of his instransigence over keeping his own discretionary funds or the notorious pork barrel while only renaming similar funds for legislators called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) by introducing new procedures in its use.

The uncovering of the P10-billion pork barrel scam engineered by Napoles triggered public outrage resulting in increasing protest actions seeking the unconditional removal of all discretionary funds in the yearly government budget.

The Palace said efforts to impeach Aquino will be an act of futility. Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) Secretary Ramon Carandang said the impeachment move against Aquino is an attempt at misdirection.

“The public has been given revelations about alleged corruption in the spending of PDAF. And, I think, there are certain parties who are trying to misdirect it, for one reason or another, towards the President,” Carandang said.

“We ask private groups and concerned citizens to lead the filing of impeachment complaint against President Aquino. The evidence is politically, morally and legally strong to send the President to the impeachment line. It is high time to end this political masquerade of the Aquino administration, which is out to keep their lion’s share of the pork barrel courtesy of this all ongoing political drama on scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles,” said France.

France said Aquino’s obsession to keep his own discretionary funds and the audit free Presidential Special Funds (PSF) which are sourced from shares of the national government from Malampaya is major reason why Aquino should be impeached since it runs contrary to public interest.

“The impeachment of President Aquino is a tall order of the day. Next time, people would go to the streets to demand his resignation if he refuses to give up his pork barrel and abolish this major form of bureaucrat capitalism,” the Pamalakaya official added.

In an interview, Carandang said the public has been given revelations about alleged corruption in the spending of PDAF and he thinks, there are certain parties who are trying to misdirect it, for one reason or another, toward the President.

Carandang maintained Aquino had not committed any wrongdoing involving the dispositions of public funds allotted for his office. He further averred that President Aquino has never been accused of misusing any funds from the public.

But France said Carandang is either heavily misinformed or totally blind about the responsibility and accountability of Aquino on the issue of pork barrel and public interest.

The group said the impeachment complaint if filed against Aquino would not be baseless, and as far as the people are concerned the impeachment case to be filed against Aquino would be sufficient both in form and in substance.

“That is Mr. Carandang, that is why he is called nothing but a second rate, copy cat apologist of Mr. Aquino,” said France.

France had previously slammed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for keeping away records on how Aquino and allies in the Senate and the House of Representatives spent their respective pork barrel from July 2010 up to last year.

The Pamalakaya leader learned that the Commission on Audit (CoA) had asked Budget Secretary Butch Abad the reports of the budget agency pertaining to pork barrel expenditures of Aquino and lawmakers since the former assumed the presidency in 2010.

The group insisted that Secretary Abad should open the books of the President Social Fund (PSF) also known as the presidential pork barrel and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) awarded to allies of President Aquino in both chambers of Congress. The knee jerk reaction of DBM to the request of COA to provide the state audit department reports of pork barrel expenditures is unthinkable and mind-blowing.
“If President Aquino and Secretary Abad are not hiding anything from the outraged Filipino public, then by all means, the DBM should submit the reports on how Mr. Aquino and the Aquino-dominated Congress spent their pork barrel over the last 3 years,” said France.

France said the DBM had posted the allocations of pork barrel to President Aquino and lawmakers on its website, but the group said it is just a post, the entries are not scrutinized and lacks explanation and transparency.

“The Aquino-Abad tandem should submit the pork barrel republic report covering the period 2010-2012 and abolish the pork barrel of the Office of the President and scrap the PDAF of senators and congressmen. That is the collective interest of the suffering Filipino people,” France said.

“He (Aquino) should decide at the soonest possible time,” he said. “We are giving the President until the end of this month to finally decide (for the abolition of pork barrel),” AMRSP said.

The AMRSP official said that thei group’s campaign will continue until all forms of pork barrel are abolished, principally the PDAF which is lump sum and discretionary.

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), which groups mainline Protestant and non Roman Catholic denominations, said the pork barrel is a part of the patronage politics that has plagued the electoral and political system in this country.

“…There is every reason to be upset that the President who was elected via an anti-corruption drive and a platform of ‘daang matuwid’ is not keen on removing this scourge,” the NCCP said.

“There is neither justification for the misuse of public funds by leaders while the majority of the people wallow in want and vulnerability to disasters, nor any moral ground in the failure of our leaders to be accountable,” it said in a statement.

Bishops of NCCP member Churches joined the Forward March action last Friday. The Catholics, meanwhile, were led by Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez. Bishop Oscar Cruz and Bishop Broderick Pabillo joined the interfaith gathering at the Rizal Park.

In his speech, Cruz said in Filipino, “Prayers are good but prayers alone are not enough. We, too, must act.”
Cruz warned Malacañang not to belittle the anti-pork protest. “Malacañang, do not tell us that the people who are not here are in favor of pork. People are not here for many reasons, perhaps they do not have money for transportation, …but it is impossible that Filipinos conform to what is happening in the country today.”

The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has called for “collective undertaking as Filipinos pursue truth and genuine accountability.” Thousands of students from Catholic universities and colleges flocked to Rizal Park.

In a strongly-worded pastoral statement issued Thursday, the bishops of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) said, “Sadly, our political leaders have proven themselves to be no better than Judas—their pronouncements of the needs of the poor have been merely a façade for their own thievery and abuse of power.” “Our nation has been betrayed by those stealing from the common purse and we unequivocally denounce that the poor, who continue to endure hunger, demolition, unemployment and underdevelopment, have been abused for such plunder,” the UCCP said.

In a statement, the Catholic-led National Task Force for Urban Conscientization (TFUC-AMRSP) echoed the cry of the urban poor: “Instead of using public money for the benefit of the poor, taxes are being squandered by politicians who seek office as a business enterprise. The pork barrel Scam is an outright disrespect to the many impoverished people of both the urban and rural parts of the country. This syndicated plunder of public funds worsens the situation of the poor by wiping away their hopes for a just society.”

The Task Force of the Orientation of Church People also called on the “religious, clergy, and lay people alike must further the call for a just society as our primary role as people of the Gospel.”

The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) said “indigenous rights and land reform remain hampered by controversies as the root cause of all unrest.”

Meanwhile, the Promotion of Church People’s Response deemed that the testimony of whistleblower Benhur Luy “clearly points to [President] Aquino as responsible for the whole controversy.”

“The knowledge of Christ as savior compels search for truth and to hold transgressors accountable. As long as the bureaucracy is haunted by the ills of corruption it will not deliver services that will benefit the people, most especially the poor,” Nardy Sabino, PCPR secretary general, said. “It is our unity Roman Catholics and Protestants, therefore to call action to pressure the immediate abolition of all Pork Barrel and allocation of funds to social services. The Aquino administration remains accountable to this controversy as long as it fails to act.”

Both the youth of Catholic and Protestant Churches also added their voices against the pork barrel system. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Youth said “the country and our people are beset with various saddening and disturbing issues many of which are recurring issues from the defective system that has not found a better alternative yet.”

http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/19188-impeach-aquino-gains-traction