Ex-generals
to Aquino: Give up your pork
2:13
am | Sunday, October 20th, 2013
Retired
generals on Saturday said Malacañang should transfer to the National
Treasury the Malampaya Fund and all other state funds spent at the
discretion of the President, so their use could be monitored.
The
pork barrel scandal that has held the public’s attention for three
months now was also being discussed in military circles and the
consensus is to put all government accounts under the custody of the
treasury, said retired Brig. Gen. Rosalino Alquiza, former president
of the Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO).
“We
have heard a lot of sentiments and positions [on the pork barrel]. I
join the recommendation that the Malampaya Fund, the Pagcor
(Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) fund and the PCSO (Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office) fund that go directly to the presidential
fund … should be deposited in the National Treasury and be
subjected to the budgetary process,” Alquiza told the Inquirer.
He
said this should end the debate on the President’s pork barrel and
the abolition of all forms of pork.
Officials
of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAA), led by
their chair, retired Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Reyes, graced the 115th
Foundation Day parade of the PMA cadets in Fort Del Pilar, Baguio
City.
Reyes
made no reference to the pork barrel scandal in the speech he
delivered at Borromeo Field.
But
in an interview after the program, Reyes and members of the PMAAA
board said Alquiza’s position was a common sentiment among the
association’s members.
Reyes
said the PMAAA wanted good governance to prevail over the anomalies
that had surfaced.
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He
said the PMAAA had been following the debates since the Commission on
Audit revealed that P10 billion from the pork barrel of legislators
may have been stolen using fake nongovernment organizations linked to
suspected scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
The
fake NGOs were allowed to facilitate the projects selected and
financed through the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or
pork barrel of more than 20 lawmakers.
The
controversy soon included government expenditures financed by the
Malampaya Fund, which represents the government’s share from the
earnings of the natural gas project in Palawan.
Napoles’
NGOs allegedly accessed some of this fund, too, when Malacañang
disbursed livelihood money for victims of Typhoon “Pepeng” in
2009.
Reyes
said the PMAAA was not in a position to pass judgment on how the PDAF
or the Malampaya Fund had been spent, but the retired generals
believed that all government funds “must go through a clear process
of checks and balances.”
Presidential
Decree No. 910, issued by former President Ferdinand Marcos, allows
the president access to the Malampaya Fund, which is to be used
primarily for energy-related projects, Alquiza said.
But
PD 910 should no longer be valid after the 1987 Constitution took
effect, he said.
Alquiza
said the PMAAA was also concerned about “this new mammal called the
Disbursement Acceleration Program,” a policy employed by Malacañang
to allocate savings to lawmakers which many believe was “used for
patronage politics.”
Reyes
said the PMAAA did not want the President to lose his flexibility to
govern the country, but the solution to the pork barrel scandal would
be to reduce the discretionary funds available to his office.
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