MANILA, (PNA) — Two party list solons on Thursday appealed to their colleagues to voluntarily make an immediate full “public accounting” of their projects funded by the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund, otherwise known as pork barrel funds.
Buhay party list Rep. Lito Atienza and ABAKADA party list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz said senators and congressmen should not wait for the Commission on Audit or any other agencies of government to do the accounting of the legislators’ PDAF.
Atienza and dela Cruz made the call following the alleged P10-billion pork barrel funds scam which had put the legislators into a bad light prompting various sectors to hold rallies to protest the PDAF system believed to be the major source of lawmakers’ kickbacks.
“Lahat ng senador na gumamit ng PDAF, dapat on their own mag-submit na sila ng report sa bayan [na] ito ang aming ginamit. Ito po ang aming pinagkagastusan. Hindi na ‘yung CoA pa ang hihintayin natin. Paramagkaroon na ng katapusan itong ating pinagdadaanang napakadilim at napakakitid na lansangan ng ating demokrasya,” Atienza stressed.
Dela Cruz agreed, saying that the move to voluntarily submit to the people their own audit of their respective PDAF would help erase doubts on the use of public funds.
“I think, members of the legislature (should) now come out with their compilation of their use of their PDAF. I think that is proper. I think that it will serve them better if they come out with that and not wait for the COA or the Department of Justice to come out withinvalidated and very suspicious reports,” Dela Cruz explained.
“Like for example, the COA report remains invalidated. Did you know that in the COA report from 2007-2009, only 58 percent of the PDAF was accounted for, the soft projects, 32 percent of the hard projects? And they entirely depended on the releases of the DBM. That is unfortunate,” Dela Cruz concluded.