Special provision in the 2007 budget bill ensures
transparency in pork barrel fund use, says Drilon

Once the 2007 budget is enacted into law, any citizen can now require any government official to disclose data on the implementation of public funds, information on government projects and utilization of pork barrel allocations.

This, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Franklin Drilon, is one of the innovative provisions featured in the 2007 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which is now on its way to be signed by the President.

"With this new provision, any citizen can now insist on their right to know. The 2007 GAA carries a special provision that mandates full disclosure of the use of public funds by each and every government agency, allowing the public careful scrutiny of government funds, including the way pork barrel funds are spent," Drilon said

With this safeguard in place, an umbrella organization of civil society groups expressed gratitude to Drilon for the inclusion of this provision that explicitly requires legislators and government officials to make information on the utilization of pork barrel allocations easily accessible to the public.

In a letter dated January 23, 2007, Sixto Donato Macasaet, executive director of the Caucus of Development-NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), thanked Drilon, for his "support for the transparent and proper utilization of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Congressional Allocation (CA)."

"People's cynicism on the use of pork barrel funds is exacerbated by the fact that information on the use of pork barrel funds is not easily available to the public. With this provision introduced in the bill, the people can keep a watchful eye over the use of these funds," Drilon, who is also Liberal Party president, said.

In a separate letter, Vincent Lazatin, chairman and executive director, Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), thanked the former Senate president for his support to the right to information advocacy.

TAN is composed of 23 organizations mostly in the academe and business sector, including the Ateneo School of Government, Concerned Women of the Philippines, Development Academy of the Philippines, Fellowship of Christians in Government, La Salle Institute of Governance, Philippine Center for Policy Studies, Makati Business Club, Social Weather Stations, Transparency International-Philippines and other groups.

The provision in the GAA emphasizes the right of the people to information on matters of public concern, as enshrined in Section 7, Article III of the Constitution.

Under the general provision of the budget bill, a new provision was inserted which states that " every government agency of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches shall, upon request by any citizen, make available the data under their possession for information, in any form whatsoever, pertaining to the implementation of the appropriations under this act including but not limited to information on projects, disbursement of funds, reports, contract biddings and awards."

Drilon, whose term as senator will expire in July this year, takes pride in the novel and cost-effective way that he utilized his pork barrel allocations. He devoted P250 million to a school-building project in coordination with the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. To date, this partnership built more than 1,400 classrooms, helping close the gap of classrooms in rural areas nationwide.

"Under the project, classrooms were built at approximately P180,000 per classroom versus P400,000 when done by government contractors," Drilon said.

Drilon also allocated P148 million of his PDAF to government hospitals such as the Philippine General Hospital, National Kidney Institute, Philippine Children's Medical Center and the Philippine Heart Center for the benefit of indigent patients.