Slaying the pork barrel Hydra

There is an ancient Greek myth about a serpentine water monster inhabiting the lake of Lerna,—a region said to be the entrance to the Underworld. This creature, called the Lernean Hydra, is said to have possessed many heads.But what really made it deadly—and virtually unkillable—was its unique power of regeneration where cutting off one head would result in two more heads growing back in its place.

The tale of the Hydra is almost three millennia old, according to historians, but it could very well be a modern story about the Philippines’ seemingly immortal pork barrel system.

Not only does this system of abuse of public funds by legislators refuse to die with every attempt to slay it, but it seems to have the ability to reincarnate and come back each time bigger than before.

Triumphant return

Today, it seems that it is poised to make a triumphant return in the form of so-called unprogrammed allotments in the 2024 national budget that Congress recently passed and is now awaiting the signature of President Marcos.

According to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, next year’s national government spending bill contains at least P450 billion worth of these pork barrel-type items. Adding in the P281.9 billion in such allocations that the Senate approved for its version, the total tab for unprogrammed allocations would be P731.4 billion.

This, in turn, would cause the total of the proposed General Appropriations Act to breach P6 trillion—a record budget with possibly a record level of pork in the country’s history embedded in it.

The problem with all this is that no less than the Supreme Court had declared the pork barrel system unconstitutional way back in 2013.Back then, the country was still reeling from blockbuster revelations, reported in this paper, that as much as P10 billion in pork barrel funds were diverted to nonexistent nongovernmental organizations by businesswoman Janet Napoles in connivance with corrupt lawmakers.

Staggering in comparison

Today, the amounts being bandied about in unprogrammed funds, and which could be pork barrel funds in nature, are staggering in comparison. This is unconscionable as it comes at a time when the country is still struggling to dig itself out of the economic woes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the wasteful ways of the previous administration.

The Philippines’ fiscal situation is so precarious that it is balancing on a knife’s edge just past the threshold of debt that many international watchers and economists say is the acceptable prudent level for a country like ours.

More importantly, it will take several years of tax increases and hopefully uninterrupted economic growth for the Philippines to walk itself back from the brink of this fiscal abyss.

But all this does not seem to bother our lawmakers who, as evidenced in the national budget they have crafted, have prioritized their narrow interests (whether those of their districts or of their own persons) over than of the nation’s broader welfare.

Power to veto

What is the solution then?

Mr. Marcos does not have to throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater and have Congress start from scratch. As it stands, the proposed 2024 General Appropriations Act could use some improvements that the Chief Executive himself could take the initiative on.

Former senator Panfilo Lacson, long an advocate against the pork barrel, called on the President to exercise his power to veto specific items in the government’s bloated spending bill for next year.

Doing so will send a strong message to lawmakers that attempts to resurrect the pork barrel system through other means and by other names will not be tolerated in the current Marcos administration.

Show transparency and consistency

Congress would also do well to remember that it was roundly applauded by the people just a few weeks ago for putting its foot down and scrapping the P650 million in confidential funds proposed by the Office of the Vice President. Lawmakers must show transparency and consistency by tamping down its own appetite for discretionary funds the way they had moved against those proposed by the Vice President.

Indeed, the pork barrel system is a modern-day Hydra that seems to come back stronger after each attempt to kill it. But the mythological hero Hercules was able to slay it by cauterizing each neck as he decapitated each head, thus preventing new ones from growing back.

If he wants to, the President can very well become a modern-day hero buy cutting off the many heads of this odious display of congressional largesse and cauterizing their necks to stop more from springing back to suck the life out of the long-suffering Filipino people.