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THE SAME PREVIOUS POSTINGS I HAVE MONTHS AGO...WHO WILL BE ABLE TO HEAL THIS CANCER...READ BELOW...Article from PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE OF GRAFT....
HOW THE CONGRESSMEN ENRICHED THEMSELVES OUT PEOPLE’S TAXES:REASON FOR THE INCREASE OF THEIR NETWORTH & THEIR CLING TO POWERShare.. Today at 9:59am
The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), known throughout the nation as the “pork barrel,” encourages graft by providing money for unsupervised discretionary spending. The PDAF pork barrel is only the tip of the iceberg, however, because these special development funds represent only about 1% of the national budget, and the budget process allows even greater misappropriation.
The “Pork Barrel”
This year each of the 214 congressmen is allocated 60 million pesos (roughly USD1.5 million) for spending at his discretion, and each of the 24 senators receives twice that amount.[1] With no real oversight or accountability, this institution is rife with corruption. Some of the funds intended for priority development projects in the congressmen’s districts, such as health care, clean water, and poverty alleviation, are typically spent on trivial projects which contribute nothing to the social and economic development of the country. Common examples are cement outdoor basketball courts and “waiting sheds,” small awnings or covered benches beside roads, where those waiting for a bus can get out of the rain.[2] Large signs laud the congressman for spending government funds on the project (instead of just pocketing them?).[3] Such projects are often accomplished just before elections, so signs touting the congressmen provide free campaign advertising for those seeking re-election.
If congressmen do initiate substantial development projects with their PDAF monies, awarding of contracts is widely abused. Pork barrel projects are often grossly overpriced, in some cases reaching “…more than 200 percent of the market prices and government-set costs,” according to The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism[4], and contractors pay a lot of kickbacks. Many citizen watchdogs, journalists, and even some legislators decry the pork barrel system and call for its abolishment. "I have to be very candid with you, that most of the P70 million a year of pork barrel or priority development assistance fund (PDAF) is not properly used," Congressman Herminio Teves said at a press conference last April.[5]
The Budget Process
During the budget process, instead of Congress approving, or judiciously trimming, the budget submitted by the executive branch, congressmen insert more “pork” into departmental budgets with stipulations that they will identify the projects, choose the contractor and suppliers, etc. Kickbacks may be as much as half the price of contracts awarded, and contractors, in order to squeeze any profit from their half of the project funds, are forced to use substandard materials and labor, cheating the government and hindering national development.
As one example of this budget process, former Senate President Franklin Drilon revealed last month that the House more than doubled its pork barrel allocation by inserting another 13.5 billion pesos in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways. He called for lawmakers to remove this pork, but Congressman Edcel Lagman, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, rejected Drilon’s appeal, bragging that “The primacy of the appropriation of public funds is a legislative prerogative, repeatedly sustained by the Supreme Court.”[6]
Read more at Suite101: Philippine Institutions of Graft: Pork Barrel & Budget Process Allow Philippine Corruption to Flourish http://philippines.suite101.com/article.cfm/institutionalized_corruption#ixzz0jo3o9bwF
Among the challenges to national development in the Philippines are graft and corruption, which are manifest in many various forms including bribery, kickbacks, embezzlement, vote buying, cronyism, and nepotism. Additionally, corruption facilitates criminal enterprises such as black marketing and illegal gambling syndicates, both also prevalent.
Corruption has both political and socio-cultural roots: the political system and its institutions allow graft and corruption to flourish, but it is people, not institutions, who are robbing government funds. This article attempts to give an idea of the magnitude of the problem, while subsequent essays will focus on how some political institutions foster graft and corruption, and on socio-cultural aspects which seem to encourage taking opportunities to steal public funds.
The Marcos regime, which has been described as a kleptocracy, literally “rule by thieves,” made the Guinness Book of World Records in the late 1980s as the most corrupt government of all time.[1] Fortunately, the situation has improved. In 2006, Transparency International, the Berlin-based non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1993 to curb corruption in international transactions, rated the Philippines less corrupt than 51 of 163 nations, but ranking among Asian nations is not good.[2] The only Asian nations in 2006 receiving a worse rating than the Philippines from the Political & Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd. (PERC), a Hong Kong firm specializing in strategic business information and analysis, were Indonesia and Vietnam.[3] In 2007, the Philippines dropped to last place of the 13 Asian economies studied by PERC.[4]
So, the Philippines has a relatively poor ranking, but quantifying graft gives a better idea of the impact on the nation. In September 1998, President Estrada said stealing would waste roughly 100 billion pesos (approximately USD2.5 billion), which translates to about 20% of the national budget proposed for 1999![5] In June 1999, President Estrada consistently applied this percentage, stating that 24.1 billion pesos (about USD600 million), or 20% of all government project funds spent the previous year, were lost to graft and corruption.[6] The following month, Philippine Ombudsman Aniano Desierto claimed the government lost 1.4 trillion pesos (perhaps USD100 billion, varying exchange rate over 11 years) since 1988 when the Office began investigating government corruption, and continues to lose 100 million pesos daily, or 36.5 billion (roughly USD940 million) annually.[7] (The Office of the Ombudsman is a special independent body to support the principles of honesty, integrity, and public accountability and to serve as the people’s protector and watchdog.) Although there is some variance in the figures, they serve to indicate the scale of graft.
It is difficult to quantify other costs of corruption, such as potential revenue lost to thriving black market industries, and foreign and domestic capital, businesses, and jobs these businesses would have created, all sources of new tax revenue, lost due to the high-risk investment climate caused by corruption. Additionally, it is likely that the many billions of pesos (estimated at 13 billion annually [8]) collected by illegal gambling syndicates, which could not operate without government acquiescence, come mainly from the poor who most need the government's help and protection.
Read more at Suite101: Philippine Graft and Corruption: Decades of Plunder Have Dramatically Stunted National Development http://philippines.suite101.com/article.cfm/philippine_graft_and_corruption#ixzz0jo3XZVIB
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