BURIED in the news is the conviction last week of two slightly ranking former officials of the Department of Agriculture for buying highly overpriced liquid fertilizer in 2004.
The Sandiganbayan sentenced former regional executive director Oscar Parawan and chief accountant Perlice Juan to six to eight years in prison for authorizing the transfer of P5 million in government funds to a non-government organization that would later buy liquid fertilizer at P800 per bottle when the prevailing price was at most only P300 per bottle.
The money was sourced from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of former congressman Isidro Real of Zamboanga del Sur.
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About P3.8 million in people’s money was wasted in that transaction.
That is peanuts compared to the Pharmally scandal that was uncovered prior to the last national elections.
The fertilizer fund scam was however estimated to have totaled at least P728 million in 2004. Panfilo Lacson accused agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante of diverting that amount to fund Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidential campaign that year.
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PDAF was congressional pork barrel.
It first appeared in the national budget in year 2000 when Joseph Estrada was President. The appropriations act required prior consultation with the representative of the district before PDAF funds were directly released to the implementing agency.
Macapagal-Arroyo took over from Estrada. In 2002 the PDAF article contained a special provision ordering the release of the funds directly to the implementing agency or local government unit concerned.
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“Pork barrel” is the practice of directing funds for the benefit of congressional districts to “bring home the bacon,” so to speak. It affords congressmen a certain level of control over local appropriations.
It is lump-sum, discretionary funds for lawmakers, although the term would eventually evolve to also include certain funds of the executive department.
Thus, some of the funds associated with the office of the President, like the Malampaya Fund and the presidential social fund, have of late been associated with the term pork barrel.
Pork barrel has gained notoriety because it has been used by sitting Presidents to secure congressional support.
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Congressional pork barrel, in the sense that it affords a legislator the power to control the disposition of moneys allocated in the budget, has been declared an illegal practice by the Supreme Court. Congress is limited to oversight functions. It cannot intrude into budget execution – a power that it does not possess.
Presidential pork barrel is also illegal in that the practice usurps the power of Congress to allocate.
One petitioner argued that the pork barrel system propagates the proliferation of political dynasties. The truth, no less. The Supreme Court however ignored this point because the anti-dynasty provision of the Constitution is not self-executing, and a law is yet to pass prohibiting what was determined to be a scourge way back in 1987.
Political dynasties are stronger than ever. Congress is a veritable cauldron of “nepo babies,” so called because elective office has become an heirloom among entrenched political families.
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Marlene Garcia-Esperat was an investigative journalist who helped expose the fertilizer fund scam. She was killed by assassins in her own home in March 2005.
She knew whereof she spoke. She had work experience as an analytical chemist for the Department of Agriculture.
In 2006 the Senate committee on agriculture recommended the filing of plunder charges against Bolante along with other officials of the DA.
The Sandiganbayan dismissed the case against Bolante in December 2016.
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It is the small fry that is being fried. The players on top of the food chain have dodged proverbial bullets and continue to hold sway and propagate dynasties – in an endless cycle of patronage and reward.
In the meantime, discretionary funds continue to incentivize political office./PN
