...The Effect of the Proposed Abolition of the Pork Barrel “MAKIBAKA WAG MAGBABOY!”, a popular scream of the Filipino people rallying in accordance with the proposed abolition of the pork barrel. Many things have been said about abolishing the pork barrel system but something seems omitted. Has anyone suggested another option? An alternative perhaps? The reason why I chose this topic is because it somehow affects all of us. I want to know the reason why some people take PDAF for granted not only the politicians but also those who are pretending to organize projects, etc but instead they use it for their personal gains. Is pork barrel the real root of corruption? These questions are just some of the many subjects that are inclined with the topic. With all the commotion and protest over the pork barrel scam, there are still a number of Filipinos who have no idea what it is. This term paper aims to give information about the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel and some issues and controversies connected with it; thus enlightening the effect of the proposed abolition of the pork barrel. Generally, pork barrel refers to the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English. In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. Scholars, however, use it as a technical term regarding legislative control...
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...Pork Barrel Scam Submitted by: Paula Danielle Loberiza Submitted to: Mr. Emmanuel Bolaños Pork Barrel Scam Pork barrel is the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or the term pork barrel politics usually refers to spending, which is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. In the popular 1863 story "The Children of the Public", Edward Everett Hale used the term pork barrel as a homely metaphor for any form of public spending to the citizenry. After the American Civil War, however, the term came to be used in a derogatory sense. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern sense of the term from 1873.primarily to bring money to a representative's district. Pork Barrel is never a new concept. In fact, the Philippines may just have patterned the concept and idea from the world’s practices .Pork barrel and Janet Lim- Napoles are two inseparable terms now in the Philippines. The government’s chief auditor reported that a dozen senators and scores of congressmen had directed billions in pork-barrel money into fishy NGOs over three years. The money (given to members of Congress to spend in their constituencies on projects of their own choosing) was disbursed during Mrs. Arroyo’s term. But Mr. Aquino’s first reaction was to defend the pork-barrel scheme. That is because he is at the apex of the Philippines’...
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...A RESEARCH PAPER PORK BARREL: TO BE ABOLISHED OR NOT OUTLINE Thesis : The recent scandal of government officials allegedly channelling their pork barrel funds to fake non-governmental organizations with nothing but ghost projects to show for has yet again raised the issue of abolishing the pork barrel. I. Introduction to Pork Barrel A. Definition of Terms B. PDAF in the Philippines C. Importance of PDAF II. PDAF scam A. People involved B. Reactions and Protests III. Abolishment of Pork Barrel A. Benefits B. Consequences C. Alternatives D. Opinions about the issue E. What the government will do after abolishing the Pork Barrel IV. Conclusion V. Recommendation I. Introduction to Pork Barrel A cure, a treat, an alliance, a devastation or just a play. What do we really know about that so called Pork Barrel? A. Definition of Terms The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) is a discretionary fund in the Philippines available to members of Congress. Originally established as the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) in 1990, it is designed to allow legislators to fund small-scale infrastructure or community projects which fell outside the scope of the national infrastructure program, which was often restricted to large infrastructure items (Nograles and Lagman ). The PDAF is commonly called the "pork barrel", and has been the subject of much public criticism following exposés on abuses perpetuated by members of Congress on use of the fund...
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...What Is Meant by "Pork Barrel Politics", and What Is Its Significance in Congress? Pork barrel politics refers to the mechanism by which Congressmen can add amendments to a Bill that directly benefits their state or district. For example, in 2008 the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska was pushed for by Republican Senator Ted Stevens. The project cost $398 million yet only benefited around 50 people living on the island. The objective of doing such a thing would be to improve re-election prospects and show to their constituents that they can deliver things such as economic or employment opportunities in their state or district. This can be seen to be significant to Congress as it enhances incumbent advantage. Incumbent advantage is the advantage existing candidates have in elections against challengers and means that it is difficult for anyone to contest an existing congressman. Pork barrel politics will make this worse as it will increase the incumbent’s record of getting things done for their constituents such as Ben Nelson who was able to get “pork” into the Obamacare bill for his state and was re-elected in 2012. This may not be such a bad thing in of itself but it has a direct effect on Congress as it means that the same people will be elected over and over again and this can hinder change and could prevent other, potentially better, candidates from winning the seat. However, it can be argued that despite this, each incumbent still has to stand in elections and it is still...
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...What is meant by ‘pork-barrel politics’, and what is its significance in Congress? Pork Barrel politics is a common practice in us congress where congressmen attach funding to a project that specifically benefits their constituencies or special interest groups. By attaching pork, or earmarks, to bill, politicians have an active track record of how they have benefited their constituents or the interest groups that they are supported by. This money is therefore traded for voter support and also campaign donations. Senator Thad Cochran was labeled ‘King of Pork’ in 2012. The practice has been criticized, most notably by those on the right, for encouraging wasteful spending. As earmarks circumvent the traditional method of receiving appropriations for bills, there has been a spiral of politicians attaching unnecessary earmarks to their project that do not benefit a wide range of people. Pork barrel spending peaked in 2006 with about 14,000 projects receiving 30 billion. Fiscally conservative Republican’s, who are concerned with lowering federal spending and lowering debt, insult the practice. This has lead to speaker John Boehner introducing a ban on earmarks, so to improve the trust between the public and legislators. This ban however has proved somewhat ineffective, many legislators finding ways in which they can bypass the restrictions. By subtly hinting to agencies where money should be spent when writing up a project, there has been a growth in so call ‘zombie earmarks’...
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...Pork barrel politics refers to the mechanism by which Congressmen can add amendments to a Bill that directly benefits their state or district. For example, in 2008 the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska was pushed for by Republican Senator Ted Stevens. The project cost $398 million yet only benefited around 50 people living on the island. The objective of doing such a thing would be to improve re-election prospects and show to their constituents that they can deliver things such as economic or employment opportunities in their state or district. This can be seen to be significant to Congress as it enhances incumbent advantage. Incumbent advantage is the advantage existing candidates have in elections against challengers and means that it is difficult for anyone to contest an existing congressman. Pork barrel politics will make this worse as it will increase the incumbent’s record of getting things done for their constituents such as Ben Nelson who was able to get “pork” into the Obamacare bill for his state and was re-elected in 2012. This may not be such a bad thing in of itself but it has a direct effect on Congress as it means that the same people will be elected over and over again and this can hinder change and could prevent other, potentially better, candidates from winning the seat. However, it can be argued that despite this, each incumbent still has to stand in elections and it is still the electorate’s decision whether or not to re-elect them. Another reason pork barrel...
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...Pork barrel politics refers to the mechanism by which Congressmen can add amendments to a Bill that directly benefits their state or district. For example, in 2008 the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska was pushed for by Republican Senator Ted Stevens. The project cost $398 million yet only benefited around 50 people living on the island. The objective of doing such a thing would be to improve re-election prospects and show to their constituents that they can deliver things such as economic or employment opportunities in their state or district. This can be seen to be significant to Congress as it enhances incumbent advantage. Incumbent advantage is the advantage existing candidates have in elections against challengers and means that it is difficult for anyone to contest an existing congressman. Pork barrel politics will make this worse as it will increase the incumbent’s record of getting things done for their constituents such as Ben Nelson who was able to get “pork” into the Obamacare bill for his state and was re-elected in 2012. This may not be such a bad thing in of itself but it has a direct effect on Congress as it means that the same people will be elected over and over again and this can hinder change and could prevent other, potentially better, candidates from winning the seat. However, it can be argued that despite this, each incumbent still has to stand in elections and it is still the electorate’s decision whether or not to re-elect them. Another reason pork barrel...
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...Pork Barrel a government appropriation, bill, or policy that supplies funds for local improvements designed to ingratiatelegislators with their constituents. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pork%20barrel Pork barrel defined Pork barrel has its origin in the American history. Prior to the civil war, the slaves in the Southern part of America were traditionally provided salted pork as a gift to enjoy on holiday. The slaves would run into frantic for the barrel . Kawanaka cited Evans that the onrush of the legislators to get a subsidy was evocative of the stampede of the slave of the pre American Civil war. Pork barrel formally defined as the appropriations of public funds for projects that do not serve the interests of any large portion of the country’s citizenry but are nevertheless vigorous promoted by a small group of legislators because they will pump outside taxpayers’ money and resources into the local districts these legislators represent ; an effective legislation and use of pork barrel results into the legislator being re-elected. As defined by a Civil Society group in the Philippines, PDAF Watch, “pork barrel funds are those allocated to politicians such as congresspersons and senators, to be used, based on their decision, to fund programs or projects in their districts ”. Keeping the pork thin or thick? In a position paper of Nograles and Lagman to decry the scrapping of PDAF , it was brought into the fore the origin of the pork barrel and how was...
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...what is a Pork barrel. In the Philippines, the term pork barrel is used to mean funds allocated to the members of the Philippine House of Representatives and the Philippine Senate to spend as they see fit without going through the normal budgetary process or through the Executive Branch. It can be used for both hard projects, such as buildings and roads, and soft projects, such as scholarships and medical expenses. We are not speaking about 100pesos amount of money or 1000pesos, we are speaking about millions and billions of money here, so, don’t be amaze if the persons holding this big amount of money tend to be a greedy one. I will give you some reasons why pork barrel should be abolish, the People of the Philippines cannot monitor what happens to their money, we cannot monitor if our money really goes to where it should be, if it really used for the convenient of the many or by few only, we cannot monitor what really happens to our money. Another reason is that this pork barrel system can easily be used for corruption, in the means of allocating millions of pesos for a road or building projects but instead of using competent materials they used sub-standards ones so that they can filch some of the money allocated for the project. Another reasons is the congress can manipulated the money and make it disappear little by little until its gone, then they will make some report that they used it to make road projects, medical projects and other projects. Pork barrel is a system...
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...consumption is not decided by the individual consumer, but by the society as a whole, and which is financed by taxation. It also include economic statistics and other information such as ,law enforcement, national defenses, parks and other things for the use and benefit of all. While the imperfections of market solutions to public-goods problems must be weighed against the imperfections of government solutions. Governments rely on bureaucracy, respond to poorly informed voters, and have weak incentives to serve consumers. Therefore they produce inefficiently. Furthermore, politicians may supply public “goods” in a manner to serve their own interests rather than the interests of the public. Examples of wasteful government spending and pork barrel projects are legion. Government often creates a problem of “forced riders” by compelling persons to support projects they do not desire. Private means of avoiding or transforming public-goods problems, when available, are usually more efficient than governmental solutions. Public goods that are available everywhere are sometimes referred to as global public goods. Such as fresh air, knowledge, lighthouses, flood control systems and street lighting. Public...
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...Policy Making and Policy Implementation Public policy refers to the actions taken by government — its decisions that are intended to solve problems and improve the quality of life for its citizens. At the federal level, public policies are enacted to regulate industry and business, to protect citizens at home and abroad, to aid state and city governments and people such as the poor through funding programs, and to encourage social goals. A policy established and carried out by the government goes through several stages from inception to conclusion. These are agenda building, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and termination. 1. Agenda building Before a policy can be created, a problem must exist that is called to the attention of the government. Illegal immigration, for example, has been going on for many years, but it was not until the 1990s that enough people considered it such a serious problem that it required increased government action. Another example is crime. American society tolerates a certain level of crime; however, when crime rises dramatically or is perceived to be rising dramatically, it becomes an issue for policymakers to address. Specific events can place a problem on the agenda. The flooding of a town near a river raises the question of whether homes should be allowed to be built in a floodplain. New legislation on combating terrorism (the USA Patriot Act, for example) was a response to the attacks...
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...The Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, also called the PDAF scam or the pork barrel scam, is a political scandal involving the alleged misuse by several members of the Congress of the Philippines of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF, popularly called "pork barrel"), a lump-sum discretionary fund granted to each member of Congress for spending on priority development projects of the Philippine government, mostly on the local level. The scam was first exposed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 12, 2013,[1] with the six-part exposé of the Inquirer on the scam pointing to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles as the scam's mastermind after Benhur K. Luy, her second cousin and former personal assistant, was rescued by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation on March 22, 2013, four months after he was detained by Napoles at her unit at the Pacific Plaza Towers in Fort Bonifacio.[2] Initially centering on Napoles' involvement in the 2004 Fertilizer Fund scam, the government investigation on Luy's testimony has since expanded to cover Napoles' involvement in a wider scam involving the misuse of PDAF funds from 2003 to 2013. It is estimated that the Philippine government was defrauded of some ₱10 billion in the course of the scam,[1] having been diverted to Napoles, participating members of Congress and other government officials. Aside from the PDAF and the fertilizer fund maintained by the Department of Agriculture, around ₱900 million in royalties earned...
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...The 10-Billion Pork Barrel Scam The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) more commonly known as Pork Barrel is a budgetary allocation that is given to the House of Representatives and the senate from 2006. ₱70 Million for each of the congressmen and ₱200 Million for each of the senators. This fund should be used for financial assistance in development projects which the senate and congressmen would sponsor. However, on August 2013 a public outrage have blasted after whistleblower Benhur Luy have alleged that Janet Lim-Napoles, a Filipino-born Chinese woman was behind the P10 billion scam that also involved several senators and congressmen. They have allocated their PDAF to ghost projects which were “implemented” through Napoles’s companies but have produced no tangible output. Napoles, who specialized in trading agricultural products, frequently used the procurement of agricultural inputs in the propagation of the scam. Either her employees would write to legislators requesting for funds for the implementation of a particular project (e.g. farm inputs), or a legislator would indicate to the DBM a particular recipient agency for his or her PDAF funds that would be pre-selected by Napoles. Once received, this is forwarded to the DBM, which would then issue a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) indicating the amount deducted from the legislator's PDAF allocation, and later a Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA) given to the recipient agency. The NCA would then be deposited...
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...Like it or not, we are connected with each other in many ways. Seeing our country progress economically is not the only basis for development. We need to educate every Filipino people. We need to increase employment rate. We need to lessen poverty rate. We need to raise the level of awareness during calamities, and urgently need to address issues in our government to gain trust from Filipinos. Taxes straight to pockets of greedy officials is discouraging magnified by the pork barrel scam the country is facing now. What is more heart breaking is that the empire of pork barrel scam is made possible by private individuals. Thus, rather than paying correct taxes for the development of the country, businessmen would opted to help in their own little ways. On the lighter note, according to anti-graft organization Transparency International's 2012 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), “The Philippines' ranking in the list of the most corrupt countries improved this year. While the country's ranking has improved, its actual CPI score shows the level of perceived corruption is still significant. The Philippines' CPI score was 34 out of 100, still among the lowest”. So, let’s try to pay taxes. Think of Philippine education, and other programs to be funded for nation building. Recently, we were struck with a number of devastating calamities – MILF rage in Zamboanga, Earthquake in Bohol and Cebu, and the strongest recorded typhoon in the world, Yolanda struck the whole Visayas region. Despite...
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...CULTURE OF CORRUPTION Dear Sirs:Headline and first paragraph of The Sunday Times dated September 1, 2013, says and I quote:“Scrapping ‘pork’ won’t end corruption—bishopBY ROBERTZON F. RAMIREZ REPORTER SCRAPING the “pork barrel “ system is not enough to end the culture of corruption that has become so pervasive that has taken root, according to Nueva Segovia Archobishop Ernesto Salgado.” (Bold italics mine for emphasis) The good Archobishop uses a generic term, culture of corruption that has become so pervasive that has taken root in the Philippines. However your article published in one whole page in the PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER dated Sept. 5, 2013, page 15 are more specific naming 10 departments and agencies including the church, entitled “A WAYWARD GOVERNANCE-A NATION BETRAYED,” which apparently making the Philippines, a CULTURE OF CORRUPTION and herein below reproduce:“Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (Camara de Commercio de las Islas Pilipinas) As the oldest business support organization in the country, the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands, in whose heritage of over 100 years are rooted, values and virtues sown by venerable and distinguished leaders, joins the Filipino nation in its CALL TO ABOLISH THE ‘PORK BARREL” in all its forms and names, because it is intrinsically wrong, and TO CONVICT ALL THOSE ON THE SCAM because it is rightful justice.A WAYWARD GOVERNANCE—A NATION BETRAYED We trust, support and join President P-Noy and other good...
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