Child rights NGO joins public clamor to abolish pork; says children are the worst victims of corruption

By Save the Children
September 12, 2013

MANILA – Save the Children expressed its disgust over reports that some P10 billion pesos of legislators’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) have been allegedly channelled to fake non-government organizations (NGOs) through businesswoman, Janet Lim Napoles.

Save the Children is an international child rights organization that has been implementing programs and services for children in the Philippines for more than thirty years, directly and in partnership with non-government organizations (NGOs).

“In a country where almost half of the population lives on less than ninety pesos a day, where young children continue to die from malnutrition and drop out of school because of poverty, where basic services do not reach remote communities and where people sometimes even have to pay extra to access health and education services, reports of private persons and politicians living ostentatiously and getting wealthier through public funds is nothing short of scandalous,” says Anna Lindenfors, Save the Children Country Director.

As the investigation into the PDAF scam unfolds, it reveals the systemic and organized way in which the corruption has been taking place involving the legislators’ pork barrel funds.

“Children, as the biggest segment of the population that access basic social services, are the most affected by this kind of corruption. The ineffective spending of public funds has been one of the major barriers to realizing children’s rights and welfare. Money that allegedly went to the pockets of Napoles should have gone to improving access to essential services such as health, education and protection services for children especially in areas where these are absolutely lacking. As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of Child, the government has the obligation to use its resources to the maximum extent to deliver these basic services in order to fulfill the rights of children especially those who are marginalized,” adds Lindenfors.

Save the Children further noted the lack of transparency and accountability throughout public expenditure processes.

According to Minerva Cabiles, Child Rights Governance Adviser of Save the Children, “Citizens, including children, are hardly ever informed or consulted on how government money should be spent. Children especially have no way of finding out how public funds are actually spent. We have been supporting the engagement of children’s organizations in the budgeting process in their localities. Despite the challenges, these experiences show that if given access to these processes, children can come up with proposals and solutions based on data that they have gathered and their own analysis of their situation.”

“We need to look beyond the pork barrel scam and into addressing issues of transparency, equitability, effectiveness and accountability in government spending. While we would want more resources for children, there should also be better spending that includes all children, especially the most marginalized. Even if government invest more money in education or social protection, for instance, if there is corruption, like a leaking faucet, these investments will not be able to produce the outcomes that we want for children,” Says Cabiles.

A 2011 study commissioned by Save the Children showed the important role governance plays in achieving outcomes in health and education, and the detrimental impact of corruption on children’s rights to survival and development. Citing a research on the impact of corruption in public health systems, the study finds that, “while public spending has the capacity to reduce under-five mortality, this can be achieved only where governance, as measured by the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) score, is sound (above 3.25). The study concludes that more spending in medium and low CPIA countries would not be expected to reduce child mortality.”

National statistics also point to the relationship between education and health status and governance. Figures from the National Statistical Coordination Board’s Good Governance Index (which includes political governance, and health and education indicators) shows that many provinces who ranked low in the Good Governance Index are the same provinces considered as the worst performers on the Child Development Index, a composite of indicators covering education, health and quality of life for children.

Thus, Save the Children joins and supports the clamor of the public and other civil society organizations for the Government to:

- abolish the PDAF and all other lump sum and discretionary funds within government;

- prosecute those within and outside government, including those in the executive and the legislative, who will be proven responsible for the gross misuse of the PDAF;

- channel these funds to agencies that deliver basic social services, particularly the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health and Department of Education;

- institutionalize mechanisms to ensure transparency, equitability and accountability in government spending; and

- adopt systemic and systematic solutions to curb corruption at all levels.

Adds Cabiles, “There may have been beneficial projects funded through the PDAF, [but] in many instances, the PDAF merely reinforces patronage and is used to win people’s votes. Legislators do not own these funds; rather, these are people’s money that has been entrusted to them in the belief that they would use these to address the felt needs of their constituents. The legislators are accountable to the people for how these funds are used. The legislators’ primary function is to pass relevant laws that will truly benefit and uplift the lives of Filipino people, and they should focus on this primary duty. They should also carry out their oversight function by assessing the effective implementation and impact of the laws that they have passed. It is not in their mandate to fund and implement projects.”