Call it by any other name, but the lard is obvious.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Thursday said lawmakers were now authorized to endorse and fund projects as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) prepared to submit to President Duterte the proposed P3.35-trillion budget for 2017.
But Diokno quickly stressed that the funds should not be considered pork barrel, insisting that the Duterte administration鈥檚 first budget proposal was consistent with the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the pork barrel Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as unconstitutional.
鈥淵ou can use your own term. I don鈥檛 call it pork,鈥� Diokno said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not pork barrel because pork barrel means the money belongs to the congressman. And since they are line-item budget, then they are automatically released.鈥�
He said the appropriation was different from the graft-laden pork barrel because the lawmakers would be required to submit lists of projects ahead of the enactment of the General Appropriations Act by聽 Congress.
鈥淔or those who would like to bring projects to their districts, we will consider that during the budget preps. That list of projects will still go through a process,鈥� Diokno told a press conference.
鈥淏etween a district engineer, who is unelected, and a congressman, whom the people elected, maybe the congressman has the right [to choose the projects],鈥� he said.
Since the projects should be approved before the enactment of the budget, Diokno said, the funding system 鈥渋s not violative of the Supreme Court鈥檚 court decision.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檇 like to assure you that the budget for this year and the succeeding years will be compliant with the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision on the PDAF,鈥� he said.
Diokno, however, declined to confirm the claims of some congressmen that the Duterte administration has offered at least P80 million in government projects to each member of the House of Representatives.
鈥淭he figures you mentioned may just be hypothetical,鈥� he said, adding that the projects each lawmaker would endorse should be consistent with the President鈥檚 10-point economic agenda.
Diokno, who also served as budget secretary during the short-lived Estrada administration, assured the public that the proposed budget would not contain any discretionary funds similar to the Disbursement
Acceleration Program, which the Supreme Court also struck down.