The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) decried the seeming grandstanding contest in the Senate in the so-called effort to solve the fiscal crisis by senators giving up fifty percent of their Priority Development Assistance Fund or more commonly known as the pork barrel. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of the group, “even if the whole government structure pool all their salaries and pork barrels, still it would not be enough to solve the fiscal crisis. The crisis is endemic in the current fiscal system because it relies mainly on borrowings to pay up its loans, it gives a lot of tax holidays to foreign investors just to attract them to our country, the taxes imposed are also regressive and the tax collection scheme is so rotten that big tax evaders always gets away scot-free from prosecution,”

“Besides should not the pork barrel fund to be allotted to the constituents of the senators and the congressmen, then why is it being targeted again for procurement? The thing to be done is to look into where the senators and congressmen really spent their pork barrels and if found out that they did not use it for the benefit of their constituents, it should be revoked from the said violator and he be expelled from office,” added the peasant leader.

The current grandstanding in the Senate was sparked by a resolution of administration senators to allot 50% of their pork barrels to help assuage the fiscal crisis while Sen. Panfilo Lacson chided the 9 senators who signed the resolution to give up all of their allotment.

With Lacson’s statement the people are again on the losing end of the deal because this would mean that fewer projects or services can be done for them, assuming of course that it is used for their benefit. The problem is systemic and it cannot be solved by mere collection of whatever funds that can be gathered,” said Carl Anthony Ala,public information officer of KMP.

“As long as our fiscal policy is geared for the benefit of foreign and big businesses, the crisis can never be solved, ours should be a policy that is centered on the welfare of the country and its people, one which is oriented to render service and not that of profit, when this is done then the crisis will be long over,” ended Ala. # # #  
 

KMP - 26 August 2005