How to make PDAF serve its purpose

Everyone, from the high and mighty down to the man on the street, is talking about the P10-billion pork barrel scam and they are all angry. Sadly, the scandal was dug up during the much-touted “tuwid na daan” administration of President Aquino.

Meant to ease rural poverty, pork barrel funds allegedly were diverted to bogus nongovernment organizations and to the pockets of lawmakers.

It’s just right that the entire nation is up against continuing the congressional pork barrel. The system, also called the Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF, failed to achieve its purpose of improving the quality of life in rural areas and of helping the poor get out of poverty. Instead, it made many unscrupulous senators and congressmen rich or richer, even as the poor were getting poorer.

Should the pork barrel system be continued? I propose that instead of releasing pork barrel funds through the senators and congressmen, these should be channeled to local governments to finance projects identified by barangay, municipal, city and provincial officials. There should also be a strict system for disbursing the funds and close monitoring of their use. And an ocular inspection/evaluation of every PDAF-funded project should be made.

Then and only then can the theft and plunder of pork barrel funds be prevented.

—KEANNA ANN B. MAGPAYO,

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