FEDERICO PASCUAL WROTE: TAMA NA!: While Malacañang gropes for a safe response to the explosion of public indignation over the plunder of pork barrel billions, a logical immediate step is to stop the disbursement of all public funds that smell of pork. Do not believe the lie that the government machinery will grind to a halt without being greased with pork barrel fat. Itigil na muna yan – until we have in place an honest system of controls for the proper use of the notorious Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and all discretionary funds that should be lumped together under the tag “pork barrel.” The abuse of the pork barrel has grown exponentially under a succession of corrupt administrators, remarkably under the present “tuwid na daan”, so that now only a quick surgical slice can excise the cancer. But since the beneficiaries – from the President down to the senators, congressmen, Napoleses and whoever else God knows – connive to protect one another, it is time that the people themselves took the initiative of putting an end to the big swindle. * * * PROSTITUTION: So now there is a call for concerned citizens to gather at a sacred ground – some suggest the Luneta – to raise their voice against the plunder of the pork barrel and its variations in and outside the national budget. President Noynoy Aquino has served notice that, under his watch, the pork barrel stays. Naturally. He needs the pork to control salivating senators and congressmen (majority of them anyway) and do his bidding. Then the senators and the congressmen in his pocket, in turn, move to protect their Palace patron in symbiotic prostitution. Where does that leave the people, who have been fooled the past three years into thinking they are the Boss? Abangan! * * * ZERO INTELLIGENCE: It is an open secret that pork is the main item in the basket of goodies that Malacañang uses to buy off senators and congressmen. More billions include special operations funds that are labeled Intelligence Fund to keep away the prying eyes of auditors. The talk is that the balance of the Intelligence Fund is always zero when the president steps down. Wow! There is also the President’s so-called Social Fund – easily P500 billion together with the Intelligence Fund – augmented by gambling money funneled to Malacañang from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (We have the oddity of the President being the biggest Lotto and Sweepstakes winner on record without having to place a bet, through the neat trick of moving to his social fund all prizes unclaimed after one year.) The annual P200-million pork of a senator and the P70 million of a congressman pale in comparison to the luscious presidential pork. * * *
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 20:35:52 +0000
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