A Point for Compromise

One of the United States abominable legacies to the Philippine political system is the pork barrel system. It is a system that was conceived inside the budget system but dwells along its border in the sense that members of the legislative bodies were given a free hand to identify/ select projects and endorsed disbursement for a specific item of expenditures for their respective districts subject to a relatively lenient parameters. Well, that is the cover story, the substance and discreet part is that it was being utilized as leverage thereby creating a sinister system of check and balance through mutual coercion. The executive branch has in its power the constructive release (or not to release) of the funds under the pork barrel system for the lawmakers disposition. But it will depend on the degree of cooperation the legislature is giving to the incumbent administration's programs and priorities. Similarly, members of the legislature may not act on a particular bill desperately needed by the administration until the pork barrel is release under their authority. One may note that the system is defective at the onset since each branch of government has the tendency to decide not purely on the merit of a proposed legislation but also on the influence of money it hopes  to control. The system entails a negative means of persuasion, such as blackmail and bribery. It is a given that when need, want, and obsession crossed path with opportunity, it lays the ground for crime and corruption, and the pork barrel system creates the opportunity that ultimately completes the equation.

By accounting and auditing standard, delineated duties and responsibilities, among others is indicative of adequacy in internal financial control. That is, a billing clerk is not supposed to collect; a cashier is not supposed to issue invoice; a budget analyst neither bills nor collect, and so on. The legislature’s duties and function is to enact laws but under the pork barrel system they were also incongruently given the authority by the appropriation act they themselves enacted to influence either directly or indirectly the disbursement of pork barrel funds to whoever  and whenever it chooses with obscure or little accountability. That being said, the pork barrel system is a taboo from an auditor's standpoint due to its tendency to lure fraud and corruption.

The pork barrel system is a defective system because it was meant to be for reasons mentioned earlier. It caters to the pleasure of the members of the legislative branch to the detriment of the taxpayers and the beneficiaries of public welfare fund. The recent revelation that the pork barrel fund has been misused attest to the systems intentional weakness. The latter and the popular clamor for abolition should inspire the government to work towards the elimination of the pork barrel system, at least on the legislative side, which after all is not constitutionally tasked with discharged of executive function.

However, total abolition to include that of the executive branch would be no more than but a knee jerk reaction. It is like prohibiting all cars because someone got run over; or banning the guns totally because somebody has been shot. The executive branch and the Office of the President for that matter were tasked to execute laws and appropriation act promulgated by the legislative bodies. But apart from that, the President is also responsible for continuity in government even under critical times and emergency situation such as war, rebellion and breakdown in social order; the alleviation of suffering and relief of the people in times of calamities and disaster; and to respond with discretion to situations requiring such action among others. These things cannot be budgeted with accuracy and certainty. It cannot be required to pass the usual bureaucratic process by its very nature. Responsibility without authority would be an exercise in futility. They say that in desperate times you need desperate measures and amid that situation without contingency funds you will have a lame duck executive branch, ineffective and unable to fulfill its expected functions.

Necessarily, contingencies must be provided for with the appropriate funds accordingly allocated to remain under the President’s discretion being an essential feature to the discharge of his constitutional responsibility and mandate.