Pork Barrel Watch Project

The Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) monitors the usage of Priority Development Assistance Fund allocated by congressmen to various districts.

A Commitment of Support and Cooperation Agreement between Code-NGO and the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Budget and Management was signed on February 25th by Code-NGO Chairperson Aurora Tolentino and DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.

Review Pork Barrel Allocations

Transparency Clause in 2007 Budget

18 April 2007 - Anyone can now inquire how public funds are spent with the new clause contained in the 2007 budget. The General Appropriations Act (RA 9041) features a provision allowing citizens to ask government agencies to disclose how they spent funds allocated to them. This new feature is a safeguard against abuse of discretion and could determine discrepancies in programmed plans and actual spending.

This insertion will be a test on whether government can grant ordinary citizens access to information. Included in the items that can now be monitored are priority development assistance funds (“pork barrel”) amounting to billions of pesos, with each congressman receiving P40 million and each senator, P120 million a year.

The transparency clause was proposed by TAN (Transparency and Accountability Network), a member of the CAC, in a meeting with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Franklin Drilon through the Pork Barrel Watch project.

18 April 2007 - Code-NGO, a member of the Coalition Against Corruption, reported two missing roads out of 64 road projects the group monitors. The two road projects, with a combined cost of P5.9 million, are in Bicol and Central Visayas.

The Department of Public Works and Highways, after being notified of the findings, claimed that their own monitoring reports say that the projects have been completed. Code-NGO is now preparing the relevant documents for endorsement to the Ombudsman.

Aside from ‘ghost’ projects, 18 defective road projects were also found. Some have minor cracks, potholes, and others have pools of water or covered with mud and silt. Volunteers also discovered rough roads and roads with depleting surfaces. These road projects are worth P14 million.

These road projects are being monitored through the Pork Barrel or PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) Watch program managed by Code-NGO with support from the Coalition Against Corruption.

How transparent are your Congressmen?

12 September 2006--In 2005, the Department of Budget and Management allowed approximately P9.9 billion in discretionary spending to the House of Representatives and the Senate.  That works out to P40 million per congressman (235 of them), and P120 million per senator (23 of them).

These funds are also known as Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) and Congressional Allocations (CA), but more commonly known as pork barrel funds.  How pork barrel funds are spent should be known to the public not only because these are taxpayers' money, but because congressmen exercise a high degree of discretion in choosing projects to be implemented using these funds.

But here's a disturbing fact.  When CODE-NGO's Pork Barrel Watch project under the Coalition Against Corruption wrote legislators to obtain information on how the funds were spent, only 13 legislators from the House and 6 from the Senate, or 7% of the total number of 258 provided information on how they've programmed their funds.

The Pork Barrel Watch project began in 2005 as a way for citizens to track the pork barrel of Congressmen and Senators and to find out if these funds were well utilized. The project looked into the priorities of these legislators and whether their fund allocations were responsive to the needs of their districts or constituents. On the community level, volunteer monitors were tasked to verify whether projects are on going, completed or unfinished.

Since October 2005, CODE-NGO wrote to all 235 Congressmen and 23 Senators. The legislators themselves were supposed to be the main source of data, even though the Department of Budget and Management is also a data source. Based on the 2003-2004 PDAF allocations from the DBM, the largest allocation for pork barrel funds were for roads and highways, IT related projects, 'priority projects' and LGU projects.

As of 17 August 2006, only 13 out of 235 congressmen provided the requested information on their pork barrel projects. These were Rep. Rodolfo Agbayani (Nueva Vizcaya), Rep. Mauricio Domogan (Baguio City), Rep. Raul Gonzales Jr. (Iloilo City), Rep. Lorenzo Tanada III (Quezon Province), Rep. Rolex Suplico (Iloilo), Akbayan Party-list representatives Etta Rosales, Rep. Mario Aguja and Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, Rep. Generoso Tulagan (Pangasinan), Rep. Henedina Abad (Batanes), Rep. Ruffino Biazon (Muntinlupa City), ALIF Party-list Rep. Hadji Acmad Tomawis and COOP-NATCCO Party-list Rep. Guillermo Cua.

Rep. Rodolfo Agbayani of Nueva Vizcaya even had the information and documents delivered by one of his staff to CODE-NGO. He was the only congressman to do so. In January 2006, he also had his staff deliver to CODE-NGO's office a copy of his printed annual report to his constituents. The report included information on his PDAF/Congressional allocation projects.

For the Senate, Senators Richard Gordon, Francis Pangilinan and Sergio Osmena III also provided data on their PDAFs. Senators Panfilo Lacson, Alfredo Lim and Mar Roxas said they did not avail of the funds. Due to staff changes and files which could not be found, Senators Pia Cayetano and Bong Revilla were unable to provide data.

The Pork Barrel Watch Project is a civil society initiative focused on monitoring the projects funded by the legislators' Priority Development Assistance Fund and Congressional Allocations, often referred to as "pork barrel." This project is supported by the Coalition Against Corruption with technical and training assistance from the Transparent Accountable Governance (TAG) project funded by the Asia Foundation and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Pork Barrel funds "priority projects, infrastructure, and IT projects"

21 December 2005--Code-NGO started off its project by asking 235 congresspersons and 23 senators for data on their Priority Development Assistance Fund projects. Only eight willingly provided data. But it did not stop the project team from reviewing materials from the Departments of Budget and Management and Public Works, its partner agencies.

The team initially checked the PDAF of 103 congresspersons in 2003 and 74 congresspersons in 2004. They looked into the type of projects, contractors, implementing agencies, beneficiaries, and actual project accomplishments. The common projects funded by PDAF were described as “priority programs and projects, construction/infrastructure, and IT related projects.”

Meanwhile, local governments and the Public Works, Education, and Social Welfare departments were the most common implementing agencies cited. The bulk of the PDAF infrastructure projects implemented by DPWH went to roads/highways, bridges, multi-purpose buildings, and barangay halls. Volunteers will do their assessment of the actual projects at the field level in 2006. 

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