THE CONCEPT OF tingi is probably one of the more popular, if not practical, ways that Filipinos deal with economic realities.
But what works with shampoo sachets and cigarettes apparently does not work with billions of pesos in pork barrel funds.
In the second part of the PCIJ’s special report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund, otherwise known as the pork barrel, we look at how public funds are wasted as legislators do road repair and infrastructure projects on a “retail” basis to maximize their public exposure to their constituents.
The report also reveals a startling fact – that our legislators apparently are so enamored with the idea of organic funding that hundreds of millions of pesos are poured every year into organic farming projects – apparently to no noticeable effect.
Of course, money poured into organic farming projects are harder to track, unlike infrastructure projects where visible structures must be erected.
For a sidebar, the PCIJ looks into government agencies that face the chopping block for their alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam. But even without the pork barrel scandal, these agencies should have caught the attention of the government because of apparent massive mismanagement that costs the government tens of millions of pesos a year,
Read Part 2 of the series:
Same, same bad pork: ‘Chop-chop’
contracts, duplicate projects, etc.