It has been a traditional program or funding system of the Philippine government to issue Pork Barrel Funds formally called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Congressional Allocation to every congressman and their congressional districts certain amount supposedly allocated for identified projects based on the approval list or menu of the projects.
But recently, a pork barrel scam worth P10 Billion rocked the Philippine’s political establishment. Janet Lim Napoles became the main man for this issue as evidences and some witnesses are all pointing towards her. Further investigation and in fact an order to arrest Napoles was already being declared headed by the secretary of the Department of Justice, Sec. Leila De Lima.
Either way Napoles is guilty or not, the real concern for this matter is not only her usage of the fund for her personal matters but other politicians as well. In fact, a lot of names appeared to be involved in this Pork Barrel scandal and even have their own issues. But if we come to think of it, Pork Barrel is supposed to be of help to people and their respective districts to impose and implement the projects that their political leaders particularly their congressmen have promised to them. Initially, everything was intended for the people, but because of greed, some of our political leaders and those who are in position use their power and the resources which are supposed to be given to the citizens for their own sake. They are giving false hopes to people making them wait for something to be given to them but end up with nothing. This act is obviously an act of thief-- stealing the people’s money, but in a deeper sense it’s more of betrayal because those who are expected and trusted to help and pull us up from our miserable lives are the ones who are pushing us into our own grave.
This is a country where crooks rely on family ties and the Philippines’ traditional social infrastructure remains above the law. And unfortunately, those who have the power and money and the name will still be able to escape no matter how real the evidences presented. It is based more on personalities (front act), publicity stunts and media placements that we, Filipinos based our judgements.
Pork Barrel scam is indeed a very serious issue since we’re talking about a very material amount which is really the money of the people but bad guys just use them for their own’s sake or if they really had their projects, they’re just using a part of the fund and most of it are inside their pockets. On the other side, Pork Barrel scam or even other ways of corruption may not be as rampant as what going on now if we have a better political and financial system that has to be started by our President Benigno Aquino III. As we all know, the President of the Philippines formulates the National Budget and consistently includes the Pork Barrel as a significant element of it year in and out. Also, the Philippine Congress, a state body that amazingly approves the budget will not let this one slip away for majority of the funds will end up in its members’ secret bank accounts. We also have this financial system that instead of protecting the mob funds and revealing the misuse of it, secrecy laws expectedly known to our leaders will then be used to protect and clean up their dirts without us even knowing.
Admit it or not, people in position who are sincerely serving the people can just be counted by our fingers because most of them are really greedy, selfish and traitors. Instead of focusing on bigger problems, they tend to make us all fools creating unnecessary issues to cover their own. Napoles may have screwed up but she’s just but one item in what should be a long list of persons of interest in this case.
Is Napoles really the bad guy in Pork Barrel scandal? Did she deserve all the blame and hatred by the Filipino people? She is, perhaps, in her small way if the allegations are true. But behind everything, the real bad guy here is the person and his allies who have all the power to put an end to the disbursement of the Priority Development Assistance Fund-- the pork barrel that was supposed to be intended for our development, as the name says, but now became the whole singular point of Congressional politics.
Janet Lim Napoles may admit that she’s guilty about this P10 Billion Pork Barrel Scam but this doesn’t end here. We may be a democratic country but we are unfortunately manipulated by the government. We, Filipinos choose to dance to the tune, go with the flow and focus on small fishes like Janet Lim Napoles rather than turning our heads and focus on the real crooks that run the country. We are all betrayed by what we thought were our saviours. Let us be wise enough to dig deeper on different issues and as a democratic country, we have the power to speak up. Let our voice be heard!
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