Party-list rep presents smoking gun on pork

By Gil C. Cabacungan |Philippine Daily Inquirer

1:52 am | Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

ACT Teacher representative Antonio Tinio holds a copy of the fourth impeachment rap filed against
President Aquino on Monday, Aug. 11, 2014. MARC CAYABYAB/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, PhilippinesA party-list lawmaker on Monday released audio recordings of Commission on
Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Patricia Licuanan and Health Undersecretary Janet Garin confirming the
hush-hush deals giving lawmakers access to their disallowed P20.7-billion pork barrel allocations inserted
in lump sum funds in this years budget.
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio used these recordings as the smoking gun in the fourth impeachment
complaint against President Aquino filed Monday morning in the wake of the Supreme Court decisions
voiding the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement
Acceleration Program (DAP), described as the presidential pork barrel.
Despite the [Supreme Court] striking down PDAF laws and unwritten PDAF-like schemes as
unconstitutional, President Aquino is perpetuating the congressional pork barrel through informal
practices. This continued existence of illegal pork under the direction and license of Aquino amounts to
his betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, Tinio and 15 other signatories said
in the impeachment complaint.
The complainants claimed that lawmakers continued to have access to House pork or lump sum funds
realigned from the deleted PDAF in the 2014 budget in the departments of health, labor and employment,
social welfare and development, public works and highways, CHEd and the Technical Education and
Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
With his perpetuation of these informal practices, Aquino is the mastermind behind the congressional
pork and is forcing the entire bureaucracy of the involved agencies to implement illegal acts. Aquino is
committing, at the maximum, malfeasance in the performance of his official duties or, at the minimum,
nonfeasance by failing to prevent the perpetuation of congressional pork, Tinio said.
The recordings were taken during an executive session of the House committee on appropriations, where
Licuanan admitted that she was dealing and accepting the political reality that this is the PDAF, referring
to scholarship funds inserted in the agencys budget.
Confidential info
Paraaque Rep. Gustavo Tambunting and Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe told reporters that they would
file an ethics complaint against Tinio for releasing confidential information extracted during an executive
session.
Tinios group accused the President of deceit when he led the public to believe that he had enacted a
pork-less budget this year. The group claimed that the President was fully aware and endorsed these
outlawed informal practices.
You (representatives) would recommend. You would tell us exactly who your candidates (scholarship
students) were and we would apply our guidelines and so the COA (Commission on Audit) will have no
complaints and neither would Congressman Tinio or anyone else who wants to squeal on you guys,
Licuanan said. We have a lot of grants, we have to make this public. But in our adjustment already,
priority would be given to the recommendees, the listahan (list) of the congressmen.
Licuanan told the lawmakers about the difficulty of publicly pretending that the PDAF had been sliced off
the budget.
There are many people out there, who really think I now have P4.1-billion new scholarships. They dont
think its the PDAF, they dont think its going to you (lawmakers) And then Im supposed to tell them
No! No! Dont do that, because actually the congressmen are all going to get it, Licuanan said. We
have to go through this kind of semblance. We understand each other. I really want to cooperate.
She also confided that her regional directors actually thought they had an extra P14 million in scholarship
grants for each district so she had to tell them that this was really for the congressmen.
Aside from Licuanan and Garin, Tinio said, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional
directors had issued official releases confirming that the Houses pork barrel was still existing in the
DOLEs 2014 budget; that agencies handling the pork still set aside personal lump sums for House
members who could later access and disburse to their choice recipients; and that an access system and
personnel had been set up in agencies to allow lawmakers to deploy this fund after enactment of the
budget.
Aside from Tinio, the complainants in the impeachment case include National Artist for Literature
Bienvenido Lumbera, Cynthia Lumbera, ACT Teachers chair Benjamin Valbuena, ACT Teachers
secretary general Francisca Castro and her deputy Vladimer Quetua, Quezon City Public School
Teachers Association president Priscilla D. Ampuan, Manila Public School Teachers Association Inc.
president Louie L. Zabala, ACT Teachers secretary Jocelyn F. Martinez, ACT Teachers spokesman
Cleve Kevin Robert Arguelles, ACT Teachers representative Veronica Gregorio, All University of the
Philippines (UP) Workers Union president Ramon Guillermo and former president Felix Parias,
Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy chair Gerardo Lanuza, UP Kilos Na
convener Sarah Jane Raymundo, and Asian Institute of Management Union president Emmanuel Leyco.
Chaos in medical aid
Tinio also revealed a recording of Garin, a former Iloilo representative, during a meeting between officials
of the Department of Health (DOH) and House members last May 20 to iron out the chaos and
confusion on the medical assistance program (MAP) of lawmakers inserted in the 2014 budget.
Garin said the MAP would only be available to individuals recommended by lawmakers or their
designated staff.
Garin explained that after their funds had been downloaded to DOH hospitals, regional medical centers
and specialty hospitals, the lawmakers themselves could transact directly with the health departments
point person.
We have a directory that will be given to you and that will be e-mailed to your offices. In that directory,
there are two persons in charge of all hospitals and the name of the hospitals. So for any problem, you
immediately call or text or e-mail the persons in charge of that hospital and they will automatically issue a
guarantee letter direct to your office and direct to the hospital, Garin said.
She said a third person would be added to take care of the lawmakers medical assistance requests to
ensure that somebody would answer your text or calls during holidays, weekend, nighttime, or early
dawn.
Garin also took note of the lawmakers concerns on the format of the guarantee letter, which creates a lot
of questions because it is like an indigency program of the DOH and the political points are lost
because a DOH official signed it. Garin said the DOH would issue a new format for the guarantee letter.
Garin said the DOH had also toned down the qualification requirements in the MAP because the
eligibility of the patient is actually your (lawmakers) decision.
We have also made a decision to do away with all walk-in patients because in the first place, it was
made clear to us that these funds are not DOH funds but are actually funds of congressmen who are
there to assist their constituents, Garin said.