President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III is contemplating on cutting the pork barrel allocations of senators and congressmen in a bid to solve the country’s P340-billion budget deficit, a ranking House of Representatives official said on Tuesday.

Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, who will likely chair the House Committee on Appropriations, disclosed this on Tuesday as he said President Aquino prefers implementing a zero-budgeting strategy rather than imposing new tax hikes this year.

“The President intends to do zerobudgeting, which essentially resets everything and the agencies now have to justify every peso they ask for vice (instead of) the usual practice of just increasing the budget by a fixed percentage every year,” Abaya told the Manila Bulletin.

“This is one measure to address the deficit,” he added.

Another strategy to address the country's P340-billion budget deficit is cutting the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or pork barrel given to senators and legislators annually.

LP spokesperson and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III added that what President Aquino wants is to have “a stricter menu for the soft projects of senators and representatives.”

“He (President Aquino) will have a menu on where the congressional funds may be used... If it is in the wisdom of the executive branch to reduce a bit the pork barrel in the different districts, I think we (lawmakers) are willing to accept this,” Tañada told reporters.

“This is not something new. We did this in 2004 to address the fiscal crisis of this country and we were able to save up. I prefer to minimize the distribution of pork barrel than impose new taxes. It could be welcomed by fellow congressmen,” he added.

However, solons belonging to opposition political parties like Lakas-Kampi-CMD disagreed that reducing the allotment for pork barrel is the way to go in addressing the country's multi-million budget deficit.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said lowering the allocation for PDAF, which only comprises 3 percent of the entire national budget, would only burden the lives of the people by delivering lesser development projects.

“Cutting the pork barrel had been done when we are in very deep budget deficit (in 2004). But now the budget is still manageable. What is he (President Aquino) talking about? It is not a good idea,” Suarez said.

“In the first place, that is just a metaphor when you assume the position of the basic necessity. It's a nice motherhood statement but in reality, that cannot enlighten the life of the people nor give them better jobs,” he pointed out.

Suarez also hit on the zero budgeting plan, which might significantly lessen PDAF allocation to senators and congressmen, which he said will strip solons off of their authority to prioritize the budget of developmental programs for their respective districts.

“If you want to lessen the pork barrel, give us the authority to prioritize budget for programs in our districts. He is taking that away from our job,” Suarez said.

“What they should do is create a menu and put priority on job creations, education, health that would increase profit for businesses... There will be no corruption and will have more money if we have bigger profit,” he added.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations in the 14th Congress, said drastically slashing pork barrel is flawed, cosmetic, counterproductive, anti-poor, and will reduce countrywide development.

While the reason for cutting pork barrel was to reduce fiscal deficit and avoid the imposition of new taxes to raise revenues, Lagman said the move will not solve the twin problems, citing the following reasons: 1. The savings to be generated is small at about P10 billion. This is a miniscule dent on the budget deficit; 2. The relatively small savings will not be commensurate to the grave reduction in local services and poor beneficiaries for scholarship programs, medical assistance, small but critically needed infrastructure projects in the countryside, livelihood support programs, employment generation, access to potable water, energization of sitios and barangays and needed financial assistance to local government units, all of which are sourced from the PDAF.