‘Pork’ dangled for swift OK of 2012 budget By Charlie V. Manalo 07/28/2011

ABAD AGAIN WITHHOLDS MANDATED IRA

‘Pork’ dangled for swift OK of 2012 budget

By Charlie V. Manalo 07/28/2011

Once again Malacañang and the House leadership are into bribery as they dangled the early release of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in exchange for the swift passage of the 2012 Palace-proposed national budget, which again has not included the automatic appropriation of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) due the Local Government Units (LGUs) as mandated by the Constitution.

What the bribe offer to the members of Congress translates to is that the House will not even bother to scrutinize the budget and will pass it without question and without anything slashed.

Recognizing the fact that many members of the House of Representatives are grumbling over the non-release of their PDAF, more commonly known as the congressional “pork barrel,” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte personally asked Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad to immediately release the congressmen’s pork barrel to ensure the swift passage of the P1.816 trillion proposed national budget for next year..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110728hed1.html