It does not really matter, however, since the amount may even be undervalued depending on whose definition of "pork barrel" we use. If we limit it to simply any government funds that benefit very specific or localized constituencies but whose costs are spread to all tax prayers, then the amount balloons to staggering proportions.

For starters, it is common practice in the DPWH to let key legislators decide which minor and road or flood control projects will be undertaken. We are not talking basketball courts or waiting sheds but projects that really seem economically beneficial. When they need to put in a short farm-to-market road here or dredge a waterway someplace, they leave it to the discretion of the congressman of the area. Not just the identification of which projects will get done but frequently as to who the favored contractor would be.

And this inevitably results into favoring certain constituencies within the congressman’s district who will no doubt be pleased to see the national government undertaking a project backed by their elected congressman. Come election time, it will not be hard to guess who is going to take credit for the project.

The problem is that many projects do not actually work unless you do some other projects that make them really viable. Frequently cited examples are the flood control work involving the Taguig-Pateros area, particularly during the time when the two local government units comprised a single congressional district.

The DPWH kept on dredging and improving the waterways in Taguig at the behest of the concerned legislators unmindful of the fact that flood waters had no way of getting to the Pasig River unless the Pateros River was itself declogged or desilted. Nobody thought of doing that simply because Taguig has more voters than Pateros. But still, the practice persisted. When politics takes over technical expertise or plain common sense in disbursing of public finances, the whole thing becomes one big slush fund that keeps both corrupt government functionaries and insensitive legislators happy at the expense of the taxpayers like you and me, And it is a cycle that never stops. Very rare, indeed, is the legislator who will actually examine the proposed budget of the DPWH item by item or project by project when the juicier question is: "What is in it for me and my constituency?"

The only fair thing that can be said in favor of the DPWH is that only a handful of government agencies do not engage in this practice. And, do not think that it is limited to projects either. In one very amusing case, an ex-Metro Manila congressman who was a very vocal critic of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) was suddenly discovered to have recommended around 50 people for employment to the agency. This happened at a time when the MMDA was supposed to have stopped all hiring in preparation for its reorganization and the congressman stopped calling for the agency’s abolition.

These are the tragic hallmarks of patronage politics, the kind of system we find ourselves trapped in. This administration makes claims about its goodness and benevolence to the Filipino people. It even has the gall to sponsor commercials proclaiming testimonials of how some of us are feeling a wave of economic uplift as a result of its programs of governance. But in the end, we need only to examine how it spends the money it takes from us to realize the truth.