Partylist Representative Teddy Casiño already fired the first shot against the furthering of making our poverty-stricken country the milking cow of the greedy cold-blooded politicians.


But instead of hearing the siren roaring down the halls of Congress and seeing collective volleys of fire hurled against the aggressor, there were the usual confused and disjointed litanies of justifications that ranges from sheer arrogance to keeping their lips sealed until the issue would just die down a natural death when Madam Auring’s sex scandal surfaces.  Or paper bags with taxpayers’ money on it are once again handed out to their wide open arms plus the lazy script that they are all set to act in front of the probing public.


Casiño proposed that each Congressmen are to receive P1 on their allocated Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or “pork barrel” as to slam Sorsogon Representative Jose Solis’ proposal to increase the PDAF of each lawmaker by P30 million from its current standing of P70 million.


This pompous proposal of Congressman Solis came even after the scandalous trip of the Palace with all its lapdogs to the United States, spending millions of pesos from taxpayers’ money on expensive dinners to bare-face flaunt their unmoderated thirst for the good life despite the 3 million Filipino families who have nothing to eat everyday.


Adding insult to injury huh.  Seems they have come to love the phrase too much.


Everyone knows this “pork barrel” has been one of the main sources of corruption on this country; a very fertile source of wealth in the middle of wasteland.  A politician’s oasis when thrust into the deep scorching desert of Sahara.


I think it is already high time for the “pork barrel” of our most beloved and respectable Congressmen to be scrapped out, reconsidered and evaluated with the end-view of the public’s welfare for the following hopefully not-so-lame personal reasons and stop the bleeding of this nation from the carnage of all these wolves and hyenas:


1.  The “pork barrel” of congressmen is totally under the control and discretion of the occupant of the Palace.  With such very stupid system in place, the President has all the powers under her little baton to manipulate, control, lobby and even blackmail congressmen on key issues involving her office.


Time travel: Are the impeachment cases against GMA still fresh on your mind?  Hmm.


Remember: Among Ed Panlilio, the priest-turned-governor of Pampanga spoiled the beans by crying out in the open the giving out of paper bags at the Palace with whooping P200-P500 thousand cash in it to congressmen and local officials during the heated discussions whether the Lower House of Congress should endorse the impeachment case against the President to the excited and vengeful Senate.  Huh!  To make the story short, all the impeachment cases filed against GMA every year where thrown out into the trash bin with the verdict:  the case is valid in form but not in substance!  WTF!  And the Congressmen?  They partied and lived the good life.


All those congressmen who chose to be lapdogs of the Palace were obviously rewarded with expensive dog food and first-class grooming, while all those who bravely continue to scorch our vicious President content themselves with bread crumbs falling from the dinning table of the impoverished public.


Those who traded their souls for easy cash were given lots of infrastructure projects on their provinces approved by the President through their “pork barrel” while opposition congressmen has not received any of the allotted budget to them.  Indeed ingenious eh?  Pay back time to enemies, is the name of the game; follow me or political and material poverty is the only rule.


In the same way, Congressmen can always threaten a government agency in order for it to get what it wants especially during budget deliberations.


Casiño said, “The threat of one-peso budget has always been used by Congress to get what it wants from an agency. Perhaps it is time congressmen get a taste of their own medicine.”  Bravo, bravo! But lemme also think…


2.  Having all these projects awarded to congressmen through their “pork barrel” mislead them and people to what they should have been doing as legislators.  That is to make laws, amend laws, and more laws…and not to sponsor the making of roads, buildings, schools, basketball games, beauty pageants, baptism of constituents, derby, etc up to the point of begging and kneeling in front of the illegitimate President.  These stuffs take most of their time from sitting on committee meetings and deliberations, actively participating on plenary discussions and debates and passing crucial resolutions that the country needs.  Most of the time, many important and crucial laws are pending on Congress for so many years because of the lame excuse that they cannot wrestle a quorum.  Because many are always absent!


3.  Congressmen having a “pork barrel” tucked on their numerous responsibilities gives false hopes and a blurred understanding of who they really are and what they should be doing as public servants to their constituents.  Most often than not, constituents are expecting visible signs from their congressmen that he/she is really working like a dog by seeing constructions here and there with the caption:  Construction Of 2 million kilometers of road leading to nowhere…By:  The Corrupt Illegitimate President and Congressman Lapdog of the Palace.



Their measure of accomplishment is most of the time by things the eye could see.  And unfortunately, when a congressman has not constructed anything on his province because of his anti-administration stance, he could easily be not elected anymore come next polls.  This political consciousness of most people is not only erroneous but also built on a sandy ground.

It could be either way: the system of politics permits and cultivate such kind of thinking among the people or the people’s thinking and expectations are the ones pushing the government to recourse to such weak and corrupt political governance.


Either way, it is not the work of congressmen.  “Let’s allocate one peso for the pork barrel and let the various nominated projects of congressmen undergo line item budgeting and the public scrutiny it deserves,” said the Partylist Representative.  Exactly!  It is the work of the local government units to build all these stuffs for their constituents.  And a better option is to put into the LGUs some of those “pork barrel” allocations that goes through the scrutiny of public, so that our most revered congressmen could alas do their work.  (crossing fingers)


4.  And the most obvious.  It will end or at least lessen opportunities of corruption among the ranks of the congressmen.  Each project under their “pork barrel” is usually padded and bloated for them to get commissions.  This should stop.  Heard me, stop!  It may be sounding some tall order but for me I would not settle for seeing infrastructure works here and there courtesy of our congressmen well in fact we all know that they got a good paycheck on each of those same projects.  I don’t want to be shortchanged.  I want my 100% ROI from the heavy burden of paying my tax dutifully.


Let us see if many politicians would be still over eager to get a seat at the Lower House of Congress.


Should I sing hallelujah?  I think such this call is a breath of fresh air to our political system from time to time.  A P1 pork barrel may not be imposed for obvious reasons, but at least this is somewhat a voice crying in the desert for our government leaders to straighten up; and from the public to be always aware of  “our government’s” actions that certainly would affect us.


Do you agree with Representative Teddy Casiño proposing a P1 “pork barrel” for our congressmen?  What are maybe other reasons why the “pork barrel” given to our representatives be reduced significantly or just be totally scrapped out?  Oh, I need some pill.


Image by HikingArtist.Com

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