CPP Information Bureau
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today congratulated the ranks of the broad movement against the pork barrel as the Supreme Court announced its decision yesterday declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) unconstitutional and ordering the criminal prosecution of everyone who benefited from its illegal use.
The Supreme Court also declared illegal the provisions granting the Philippine president discretionary powers over the Malampaya Fund and the President’s Social Fund.
“The Filipino people have cause to celebrate with the decision of the Supreme Court striking down the pork barrel funds and the discretionary powers of the Philippine president, which have been among the most perfidious means for pocketing millions of pesos in kickbacks and promoting political patronage to the benefit of the ruling class clique,” said the CPP.
“The Supreme Court decision should embolden the broad forces comprising the anti-pork barrel movement to strengthen their unity and push for the prosecution of everyone involved in the pork barrel scam,” added the CPP.
“The Aquino regime, which has used the pork barrel funds to pursue its political and business agenda over the past three years should be among the principal targets of such prosecution,” said the CPP.
“The CPP cautions the Filipino people against lowering their determination to push the struggle against the pork barrel. Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision does not mark the end of bureaucratic corruption,” pointed out the CPP.
“Corruption in the Philippines is intrinsic to the backward and rotten socio-economic system that is dominated by big landlords and big bourgeois comprador partners of foreign big monopoly capitalists,” said the CPP. “Their economic power stems mainly from their ability to wield political power through patronage, the military and criminal violence.”
“The Supreme Court decision is a political victory that acknowledges the strength of the people’s movement that has long demanded an end to the system of corruption and political patronage,” said the CPP.
“However, it is only a matter of time before the ruling classes reinvent the pork barrel, perhaps in ways more devious than before,” added the CPP. “The people should persistently wage struggles against the corruption of the ruling classes until they put an end to the system that engenders it.”