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Serving the people with or without pork - Leonor Magtolis Briones

THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNANCE | LEONOR MAGTOLIS BRIONES | 09/21/2009 12:00 AM

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This is the story of two politicians who serve their constituents well. The first, Cong. Jocelyn Sy Limkaichong of Negros Oriental is a member of the ruling party and regularly receives her share of the Provincial Development Assistant Fund (PDAF), popularly known as “pork barrel.” The second politician, Cong. Teofisto Guingona III or TG of Bukidnon is a member of the Opposition. He describes himself as a “vegetarian”-- meaning he does not receive or consume pork for projects in his district.

These two politicians illustrate how they continue serving their constituents with or without pork.

Using pork wisely

When Cong. Limkaichong won as congressman in the first district of Negros Oriental, she had no mayors or barangay captains except in the town of La Libertad where she served as mayor. Hers was an unprecedented victory against a well-entrenched political clan.

Josy, as she is popularly known, says she tried to reach out to the mayors allied with her opponent. The scuttlebutt was that she would soon be disqualified anyway. She wrote letters inviting them to consultative meetings but only “representatives” were sent . She therefore decided to course her projects through the barangay officials and NGOs in the district so that her constituents would directly benefit from her PDAF or pork

From 2007-2008 Josy spent P78.43 million for rehabilitation and construction of roads, footbridges , water supply projects and hospital buildings. Out of 9 municipalities in her district, Canlaon city received the highest allocations at P11.49 million along with the municipality of Manjuyod at P10.94 million and Tayasan at Ph 10.415 million. La Libertad received second to the lowest allocation with P 6.97 million, followed by the neighboring town of Jimalalud. Guihulngan, the political base of her opponent, received P8.43 million in projects.

Her priority projects form the acronym, Heart—health, education, agriculture, roads, trade and tourism. Health is her first priority. She organizes weekly medical missions to her district. At the same time, she has put in P3.2 million in the different specialty hospitals in Manila and Cebu to take care of medical needs which require advanced treatment. . These include the Vicente Sotto Medical Center in Cebu, the Philippine General Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Children’s National Hospital and Lung Center of the Philippines.

Many of her constituents have benefited from the services of these specialty hospitals.

Josy has also set aside P1.3 million for the Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services of DSWD and training programs of TESDA.

Because of her professional training in financial management, Josy carefully allocates funds entrusted to her. She makes sure all her records are intact and assures her constituents that she can account for every centavo of her PDAF funds.

Championing a pro-people alternative budget

Civil society organizations consider Cong. TG Guingona of Bukidnon as one of the leading champions of the Alternative Budget Initiative(ABI) convened by Social Watch Philippines.

Because he is a member of the opposition, TG does not receive the usual perks distributed to those who support the administration. Nevertheless, he serves his constituents and the general public by keeping an eagle eye on the national budget and seeing to it that additional allocations for social development are safeguarded.

Budget reform is TG’s main advocacy, along with energy . He collaborates closely with the technical working groups of ABI and brings their findings to the public along with his own.

Campaigning for budget reform is not the easiest advocacy. Technically, it is not only formidable because of the sheer size and weight of four huge volumes ,but also because of the amount of detail which has to be studied.

The Executive and the two Houses of Congress are comfortable with each other and with the present budget process. Along with members of the opposition and likeminded administration colleagues, TG is swimming against the tide of fiscal politics, “parliamentary courtesy,” and abuse of power.

TG was among those who exposed the excessive travel expenses of the President. He showed how other budget items like the Contingency Fund were utilized to augment the president’s travel expenditures. As a result of the public outcry generated by the President’s foreign trips , her Office announced that P1.2 billion in funds to purchase a new jet plane will be allocated to pro-poor projects. Of course, the actual transfer of funds has to be verified.

It is generally accepted by many congressmen and senators that the budget law which is based on a Marcos decree is fundamentally flawed. A defective law can only be corrected legally. TG has filed no less than 10 bills designed to correct these defects—ranging from impoundment, uncontrolled transfer of funds, conditional vetoes, special purpose funds, and so on ad nauseaum. Not bad for one who is a vegetarian!