Pork Barrel is Meaty

In the Philippines, congressmen and senators have the so-called "pork barrel" fund. It is their budget for the fiscal year, which they have the discrepancy to spend on the Filipino people, or their constituents.

The problem is, they do not have constituents. They are lawmakers. In short, their primary purpose is to make laws to benefit the people, so why do they have to have a budget?

In my opinion, budgets should be given to leaders who serve as chief executives like governors, mayors, and barangay captains. They are the ones who should be responsible for bringing projects to their people or their area of coverage. Congressmen and senators should remain in the congress and the senate and not use the people's money to their benefit.

There is one congressman here in the Philippines who is competing for the people's sympathy against the city mayor. He would use his pork barrel on his trips in the guise of getting projects, etc. Then when it is near election time, he would start the construction of roads and other infrastructure so that he will get credit for them. Sometimes, he would just put up a sign where his picture and that of the president is there, although no work is going on in the area. But of all the roads that he has sponsored, he has not lifted a finger on the roads leading to the new government center, because that is the project of the city mayor.

Anyway, there is a problem about the way things are being run here in the Philippines. There is an overlapping of functions and there is no check and balance. The more people who get to handle money, the more money gets wasted. If only bigger budgets are given to local chief executives, the cities and towns would be more progressive as their leaders would have enough money to spend for the different projects that the locals really need. Congressmen and senators are not always around because their main office is in Manila. So how would they know what the locals need?

And the pork barrel is not a small amount. It is very meaty and spiced up for more flavor. It is no wonder that the country's deficit is growing and the national debt has grown so much that selling the entire country at this point is not enough to pay for it.