Circling the wagons

For sometime, Lacson has not touched the yearly P200 million in congressional development fund to which every member of the Senate is entitled. He believes it is an invitation to graft, a belief reinforced by his sad experience with his own staff when he still used to draw his CDF in his early years in the chamber. He feels it is not the business of legislators to identify projects and hire contractors for them, responsibilities which properly belong to the Executive. He also believes the CDF is a scheme that makes legislators vulnerable to pressure from Malacañang, eroding the principle of check and balance.

And the CDF is only the tip of the iceberg. Worse is the practice of "insertions" where the tracks of sponsoring lawmakers vanish into the thicket of programs and projects submitted by individual agencies and then consolidated by the budget department in the proposed appropriation measure submitted to Congress for every given year. There is less transparency and equity than in the CDF scheme. The "insertions" usually are made at the bicameral conference committee level long after floor deliberations, and usually by the more powerful or influential members of Congress.

So why are some Senate members demonizing Lacson for exposing the "insertions?" Take that double entry for the extension of the C-5, each funded to the tune of P200 million. Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said there was indeed double funding for a single work program on that roadway, prompting him to withhold release of the second P200 million. Officials of the public highways, on the other hand, insisted there were two separate projects.

Which is which could easily be sorted out by a Senate investigation. Some senators, however, vehemently opposed Lacson's call for an inquiry, with reasons ranging from simple oversight by the Senate's technical staff to Palace manipulation of the items in the budget measure to embarrass "unfriendly" legislators.