VIDEO | How to fix the pork barrel system, according to then-Candidate Noynoy Aquino

InterAksyon.com

The online news portal of TV5

Just a few months before he was elected President in 2010, then-candidate Benigno Aquino III was asked: What can you do to fix the pork barrel system? He had some very clear and concrete suggestions.

Specifically, Mr. Aquino suggested limiting projects that can be supported by Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to initiatives where outputs are tangible and therefore easier to monitor.

In an interview with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) - see the video below, starting at around the 7:16 mark - he proposed instituting a "menu coinciding with national priorities", and which prioritizes "hard" projects over "soft" - for example, infrastructure projects over the types of livelihood, education, and training programs that the Commission on Audit now says, in a special audit report on PDAF projects from 2007-2009, have been hard to measure - and have therefore bred inefficiencies and outright corruption.

Mr. Aquino said perhaps limiting the options of congressmen on what their respective pork barrel funds can support would better align efforts towards what the national government feels is important, while at the same time help the executive's monitoring agencies track performance and accountability.

His sentiments as a presidential candidate resonate once again, three years into his incumbency as President, as they echo some of the key points raised by the COA last week. COA Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan, presenting the special audit report, said legislators seem to have a predeliction for "soft" projects, and for identifying projects from an open-ended scheme. The tracking of these projects, not coincidentally, are now proving to be nightmarish, in many cases showing little proof - or even any standard measure - of success, failure, or even existence.

Then-candidate Aquino did not seem to categorically be on the side of scrapping the pork barrel system altogether - the proposition of some civil society groups and private citizens now mobilizing for an protest rally this August 26. Indeed, he pointed out that the PDAF is an important means by which congressmen outside of major cities like Metro Manila can fund "the needs and wants" of their constituents. But he was clearly for reforming the system.

Hear what Candidate Noynoy had to say in February 2010. He speaks about the pork barrel system at around the 7:16 mark.