4 vs 100

Four Presidential aspirants faced 100 local government officials to answer various issues involving local government units (LGUs).

The forum dubbed as "Face to Face: 100 Local Government Champions versus Four Presidential Contenders" was attended by Senators Manny Villar, Noynoy Aquino and Chiz Escudero and Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro.

The sharing scheme of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) between the national govt and LGUs, pork barrel system and the Mindanao peace process were some of the issues that the presidentiables had to address individually as they were given an hour each to meet with the local officials.

One of the most applauded statements was that of Escudero when he said that he is “in favor of abolishing the pork barrel system,” he said.

According to Escudero, he has not been receiving his pork barrel allocation since 2005 when he led the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He defines pork barrel as “lump sum allocation sa budget kung saan di na natin alam kung san pupunta o pumupunta, lumalabas na lang at nakikita na lang bigla, minsan hindi pa.”

He proposed institutionalizing line-itemizing of government projects that would state how much money is needed, what it is for and the proposed timeline of the project. Escudero said that this would solve two problems regarding the pork barrel system – corruption and the “absence or lack of focus when it comes to the utilization of government funds."

However, results of an informal survey done among the local officials after the forum showed that they chose Teodoro as their top choice (although some criticized him for being endorsed by the infamous President), then Aquino and Escudero, while putting Villar as their last choice.