Pork Barrel Update

[Jollygoodfellow]

I beleive the locals would then step up as well, and have a voice in what is happening in the country.

 

I think they are, remember the street protests recently over the pork barrel scheme.  :tiphat:

[jpbago]

 

I beleive the locals would then step up as well, and have a voice in what is happening in the country.

 

I think they are, remember the street protests recently over the pork barrel scheme.  :tiphat:

 

 

No, I am sorry but I have forgotten all about the pork barrel scheme. What happened? Did Janet Napoles lose all her assets and get sentenced to 30 years in a regular prison? Did all the 32 other senators lose their ill-gotten assets, lose their government positions and go to prison? 

[MikeB]

No, I am sorry but I have forgotten all about the pork barrel scheme. What happened? Did Janet Napoles lose all her assets and get sentenced to 30 years in a regular prison? Did all the 32 other senators lose their ill-gotten assets, lose their government positions and go to prison? 

I try to keep up with it but the twin calamities rightfully pushed them to the back burner. Napoles is still detained in protective custody awaiting trial for the serious illegal detention charge, her petition for bail was denied a few weeks ago. The Office of the Ombudsman is conducting an investigation into the other charges relating to the pork barrel but, with a "truckload of evidence", she has already said this part of the process would take about a year. The only part of the process that has a time limit is the 10 days the respondents have to file a counter-affidavit if the Ombudsman finds sufficient evidence to proceed; otherwise, it's as long as it takes. Jinggoy Estrada went to the US to seek medical advice for his wife; there are a number of those named, including Enrile's chief of staff, who left the country at the onset and have not returned.    

[Medic Mike]

 

I beleive the locals would then step up as well, and have a voice in what is happening in the country.

 

I think they are, remember the street protests recently over the pork barrel scheme.  :tiphat:

 

I am not talking about a few politians lining their pockets, I am talking about the poor progress in relation to unemployment, education, healthcare, not to mention child and social welfare. When the citizens start protesting in the streets about the poor state of these things, then I will be impressed.

[Thomas]

Jinggoy Estrada went to the US to seek medical advice for his wife; there are a number of those named, including Enrile's chief of staff, who left the country at the onset and have not returned.

Which countries let the big scam criminals stay there to avoid justice?

In an other topic someone told about some rich Philippine scamers are allowed to stay in Canada and keep their scam money...

(Sweden have let many freedom fighters stay...)

[MikeB]

I am not talking about a few politians lining their pockets, I am talking about the poor progress in relation to unemployment, education, healthcare, not to mention child and social welfare. When the citizens start protesting in the streets about the poor state of these things, then I will be impressed.

Split the topic from Globe.

It's a lot more than a few politicians lining their pockets, they are not even scratching the surface on this. At the core of all the problems is corruption. It infects every single aspect of life at every level, public and private. The citizens took back the government by force in 1986. The son of the deposed is a powerful senator and one of the main players named in the current scam. How much has changed?

[Call me bubba]

sneaky really sneaky. thats all i will post. now the story.

 

http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2014/01/10/1277120/pork-barrel-stays-despite-public-outrage-sc-ruling

 

The congressional pork barrel is alive. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada has reinserted P200 million in personal discretionary lump sum in the 2014 national budget.

So have eight other senators kept P200-million slabs each of the Priority Development Assistance Fund.

How this came about, coupled with lame justifications, show one thing. The hated PDAF will stay — in new forms and names — in defiance of public outcry and the Supreme Court’s 14-0 ruling to abolish it.

As bared by The STAR, Estrada saw a loophole to keep his P200-million PDAF. There was in Malacañang’s 2014 budget bill an outlay of the same amount, as

“LGU (local government units) Support Fund.”

It purportedly was to boost the share of unspecified provinces, cities and municipalities from national tax collections.

Estrada matched it with his own P200 million.

He detailed the beneficiary LGUs and amounts: P100 million to the City of Manila,

P50 million to the City of Caloocan,

P50 million to the municipality of Lal-lo, Cagayan.

 

Estrada’s did his reinserting at the last minute, during closed-door bicameral conferences to reconcile the Senate and House of Reps budget versions. The two chambers’ appropriations committees let it pass, and separate plenaries enacted it as part of the P2.265-trillion budget. President Noynoy Aquino signed it into law.

 

All this came after six months of exposing multibillion-peso plunders of the PDAF in 2008-2009.

After criminal charges were filed against Senators Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Bong Revilla. After Aquino denounced them as “thieves.” After protest marches in major cities and petitions in social media demanded the “pork” removal.

After the SC unanimously ruled that the PDAF is unconstitutional for being discretionary lump sums by which lawmakers blunt the power of the Executive.

 

The implications are grave. Exclusivist politics will continue to reign

, via the entwined evils of dynasties,

electoral fraud,

and opacity.

 

 

Aquino did not, could not veto Estrada’s P200-million rider. He had no ascendancy to do so. For, Malacañang’s original LGU Support Fund of like amount was a presidential “pork.” It did not specify which LGUs were to get how much, just that the President would have sole power to dole it to whoever he wishes. If the President would have his way, then so too Estrada.

And all the other lawmakers acceded,

in the political principle of you scratch my back and I scratch yours.

 

Budget Sec. Florencio Abad claims, in the wake of The STAR report, that Estrada’s P200-million insertion is subject to “conditions.” That is, the President can withhold its release.

That’s meaningless in the backdrop of public and SC resistance to “pork.” If at all, it highlights the discretionary, therefore unconstitutional, nature of the LGU Support Fund. In defending Estrada’s insertion, Sen. Francis Escudero says his finance committee actually added P205 million in all to the original Malacañang proposal.

Why he has not offered to state who inserted the P5 million more shows that the lawmakers’ first instinct is to conceal info from the public.

Estrada’s preference for only three LGUs is telling. Not only is his father, ex-President Joseph Estrada now mayor of Manila.

The mayors of Caloocan and Lal-lo also reportedly are close allies of Vice President Jejomar Binay and Senator Enrile of Cagayan.

The elder Estrada, Binay, and Enrile are the “Three Kings of the Opposition.”

They dictate how mild or severe the attacks would be on the Aquino tenure. Critics of the May 2013 congressional elections believe that the Comelec placated Malacañang

 

and the Three Kings with the results. Without finishing the vote count, it proclaimed majority of Aquino’s senatorial candidates, among them his cousin Bam Aquino.

The Three Kings too were pleased that Estrada’s son JV Ejercito, Binay’s daughter Nancy, and Enrile’s protégé Gregorio Honasan were winners.

 

The alibi of lawmakers to reinsert their PDAFs rests on hairsplitting. Supposedly the SC stated that they may realign lump sums in Malacañang’s yearly budget proposals to their preferred beneficiaries — so long as it’s done during Congress’ budget hearings.

Yet they ignore the gist of the SC ruling, which is, that the “pork” is wrong because, by being discretionary lump sums, they defy the constitutional requirement of accountability and transparency.

Estrada’s P100 million to Manila and P50 million each to Caloocan and Lal-lo are discretionary lump sums from him to the mayors. There are no details on which LGU projects are to be funded.

 

There are no safeguards against the taxpayers’ money going into personal pockets — again.

Lawmakers calculate that the people’s outcry against the PDAF has died down. Perhaps they even think that SC justices would strike down any new petition against the PDAF’s sly permutations.

This is because of incessant chatter about impeachment and scrutiny of judicial spending — to make the justices toe the line.

Then again, lawmakers might not see coming a stronger wave of anti-”pork” protests. This is the first quarter of the year, when political upheavals occur in the Philippines every 15 years or so — in 1970, 1986, and 2001.

[MikeB]

This somewhat contradicts the above article. Jinggoy's "realignment" is on hold:

"President Benigno Aquino III may have effectively vetoed the P200 million in pork barrel funds under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) that Sen. Jinggoy Estrada realigned to the local governments of Manila, Caloocan and Lal-lo, Cagayan province. The President placed under “conditional implementation” the amendment introduced by Estrada—containing the provision realigning Estrada’s P200 million PDAF to the three LGUs—in the budget, or the General Appropriations Act of 2014.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/561821/did-aquino-veto-jinggoy-estradas-controversial-p200-m-pork-barrel

[SubicSteve]

Fekking thieves.  ALL OF THEM.

[Old55]

The crocodiles are just a reflection of Filipino culture.  

There may be some protests a few Hail Marys or neck braces but don't expect change in our lifetime.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Old55