Penoy is taunting his Kayo ang boss ko who are now in the know that he is a pretending-to-be-honest president? Please, enjoin your friends, relatives and acquaintance to sign up for the people’s initiative – a petition that seeks to gather 6 million signatures to enact a law abolishing the pork barrel system. These funds being devoured by swines, crocodiles, wolves, dogs and what not in our government are our money, part and parcel of our national debts that have climbed to P5.6 trillion in this time of false tongue Tuwid na Daan government - which is still climbing as being worked out by the same is an about $500 million loan from the World Bank! Tell the same to do the same. The religious leaders in your localities must have forms for this peoples initiative to sign on. We urge the CBCP and other religious leaders to drum this up in their respective church services! We equally urge civil society, professional and for-the-truth organizations to do the same in their respective regular meetings! +++++++ Palace dares campaigners to produce 6-m signatures By Joyce Pangco Panares, Rey E. Requejo | Aug. 25, 2014 at 12:01am manilastandardtoday/2014/08/25/palace-dares-campaigners-to-produce-6-m-signatures/ THE Palace on Sunday played down a massive anti-pork rally set for today at Rizal Park, reminding its organizers that they must gather 6 million signatures before any serious discussions can begin. “We won’t comment on anything further at the moment. We’ll wait first for the results, if any,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. “We’ll see. I think they are targeting 6 million, and even if that is achieved, it is the Commission on Elections that will have to check the validity of signatures, and so on and so forth. They have to get about 3 percent for every legislative district,” Valte added. She was referring to a people’s initiative to draft a law to ban the use of all forms of discretionary funds or pork barrel launched in Cebu on Saturday. “There are guidelines that need to be followed when it comes to that (a people’s initiative),” Valte added. In his blog, Bayan Muna partylist leader Teddy Casiño urged Filipinos to attend today’s mobilization, which also marks National Heroes’ Day. “After the short exercises, you can sign up for the people’s initiative – a petition that seeks to gather 6 million signatures to enact a law abolishing the pork barrel system. Such a law will prohibit public officials from gorging on discretionary, lump sum appropriations (a.k.a. pork barrel funds) in the national budget. If the people’s initiative succeeds, we will have removed one of the pillars of the country’s corrupt political system,” he said. “By ‘standing up and signing up,’ you become part of history. Go ahead, be a hero and take a selfie,” Casiño added. In Cebu City where the initiative was launched over the weekend, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said Filipinos must not countenance the “idolization of money, especially when it takes the form of unfettered access to the money of the people.” Under the people’s initiative bill, all appropriations must be line-item appropriations, except in the case of disaster response; the contingency fund of up to 5 percent of the budget; and intelligence and confidential funds of the National Security Council, the Department of National Defense and the Department of Interior and Local Government. The proposed measure also seeks to abolish the President’s Social Fund and requires that special funds such as the Malampaya Funds and other off-budget accounts be included in the National Expenditure Program to be approved by Congress. All unspent, unobligated and unreleased funds by the end of the fiscal year will revert to or remain in the General Fund and will be subject to Congress appropriation. The people’s bill also penalizes violators with a prison term of six to 10 years as well as perpetual disqualification from public office for government officials who violated the anti-pork law. Members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and court workers said they would join today’s massive protest rally in Rizal Park to show their objection to the pork barrel system and any move to amend the Constitution to lift the single term limit on the presidency. Lawyer Vicente Joyas, president of Integrated Bar of the Philippines, said joining the protest rally would also signify their denunciation of President Benigno Aquino III’s moves to clip the powers of the judiciary, after the Supreme Court declared parts of his Disbursement Acceleration Program unconstitutional. Joyas said IBP chapters in Rizal province, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque and Makati as well as areas near Metro Manila have already said they will send their members to the rally. “While this is not a simultaneous action by all IBP chapters, those who are near Metro Manila will be joining the rally tomorrow,” Joyas said Sunday. The IBP has 85 chapters and about 55, 000 member-lawyers nationwide. The Supreme Court Employees Association said it too would join Monday’s protest to highlight their objections to any attempt by Malacañang and its allies to undermine the judiciary. SCEA president Jojo Guerrero said recent actions by the President, including his attacks on the Supreme Court, showed that he had a dictatorial bent. “That’s the view of my fellow co-workers :that the President is hell-bent on establishing a dictatorial state,” Guerrero said. The 3, 000-strong SCEA has been at the forefront of the “silent protest” held every Monday at the Supreme Court against attempt to undermine judicial independence by having its members wear black or red t-shirts. With strong backing from the Catholic Church, the people’s initiative to abolish all forms of pork barrel has drawn support from even far-flung dioceses. In an interview over Church-run Radyo Veritas, Bishop Pedro D. Argio said the Apostolic of Puerto Princesa was “all-out” in its support for the signature campaign. “I keep telling my fellow priests that we have to support this initiative,” Arigo said. He added that he will be requesting the heads of Palawan parishes to allow the use of their churches as sign-up stations for the signature campaign. The Palawan prelature is composed of 38 parishes and 20 barangay chapels. The multi-sectoral alliance “Scrap Pork Movement” had earlier called on the Catholic Church to assume an active role in the signature campaign, a necessary step in getting a proposed bill outlawing pork passed through a people’s initiative. The bill seeks to criminalize pork barrel, penalizing anyone using pork funds with between six and 10 years of jail time. The campaign was officially launched by Cebu Archbishop José Palma and retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Aug. 23 in a People’s Congress in Cebu City.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:11:23 +0000
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