Pork transmogrified: The unending story of particularistic spending

The practice of pork barreling started not long after the introduction of representative institutions in the Philippines given that it satisfied the primordial motivation of politicians to be re-elected. For elections, pork barrel allows incumbents to target voters by directing pork funds to their constituencies but also to maintain a clientelist network of supporters. But it also enables politicians to siphon off funds for personal enrichment. Regarded as wasteful spending in principle given its particularistic nature, having spawned various corruption scandals due to its misuse and abuse in practice, and despite having been declared unconstitutional in a recent decision of the Supreme Court, pork barreling continues even as it has transmogrified in order to adjust to changing circumstances. Despite strong constitutional powers which could be employed to curb the particularistic tendencies of parochial politicians, Philippine presidents have instead promoted pork barrel as a means to pursue their own agenda of securing the support of legislators and sub-national politicians or, simply, to ensure their own political survival. © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Mark R. Thompson and Eric Vincent C. Batalla; individual chapters, the contributors