WITHOUT PORK BARREL, PUBLIC- SERVICE IS PUBLIC SERVICE.

Damned, abused, deprived- the Philippines suffered a lot of maltreatment from the invaders of Juan Dela Cruz’s land. However, after a long time of suffering, the country was freed from the conquerors but this was not the end of the battle. The Philippines is fighting continuously, one thing is the never-ending issue between the corrupt officials and the masses. Today our country faces a big controversy which is the pork barrel scam. We may ask, what pork barrel means?

In American history, pork-barrel is a term used by the Americans during the civil war the slaves were given pork in a barrel on holiday season as a reward. Although that time it was clearly used as a term for literal pork, today especially in politics it is a different thing.  According to Wikipedia, http://tl.wikipedia.org pork barrel means a lump-sum discretionary fund granted to each member of Congress for spending on priority development projects of the Philippine government, mostly on the local level. In investopedia, http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pork_barrel_politics.asp it is a slang term used when politicians or governments "unofficially" undertake projects that benefit a group of citizens in return for that group's support or campaign donations. Pork barrel is also known as Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), form the word priority it must prioritize the needs of the people. But honestly speaking, people are still suffering from poverty because the fund that is intended for the poor and other projects were not being delivered. Though PDAF per se is not bad at all but the people who misused it still it is the root of the corruption in the government. Since the scam was vulgarly discuss by the whistleblowers and pointed out the officials and head of it, the people of the Philippines gone mad and went to Luneta for a million-march to abolish the PDAF.

            Today, the case is still being discuss and little by little the involve senators and officials were being revealed, I just hope that this issue will not be another line up for trash. The Philippines had encountered various problems before and now being forgotten by now. Since the President’s campaign is “Daang Matuwid”, I just look forward for his commitment to his advocacy and him, as a leader of the country must spearhead to solve the case. As I assess this issue I just realize that if these officials real intention is pure public service PDAF is not an appropriate word for them because they can serve without asking money, just like what I have witness with Bro. Eli and Mr .Public service Kuya Daniel Razon they help the unfortunate ones without having pork barrels.