SUMMARY
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MANILA, Philippines – The usually opinionated  lawmakers were quiet on Monday, August 26, while protesters nationwide call for the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel.
Understandably so. It is their discretionary fund.
Throngs of Filipinos joined protest rallies nationwide and it was all the talk on social media and news organizations Monday morning.Â
While Twitter was abuzz about the rallies – at 5 tweets per second at its peak – Rappler scanned tweets from politicians who are normally active online.Â
Before 4 p.m. Monday, we saw only a few speaking up about the pork barrel issue. Even those who earlier supported abolition calls were quiet on Twitter.
Magdalo partylist Rep Ashley Acedillo tweeted: “Mabuhay kayo!”Â
Pangasinan Rep Kimi Cojuangco, on the other hand, said she wished she was a civilian so she could join fellow advocates of the Reproductive Health law at the Luneta Park protest.
@ace_magdalo @rapplerdotcom @dzmmteleradyo @dziq990 @dzbb @dzrhnews (6) To those attending the #MillionPeopleMarch, Mabuhay Kayo!!!
— Ashley Acedillo (@ace_magdalo) August 26, 2013
#gangsters at the park #MillionPeopleMarch. pic.twitter.com/fZHaMVGJBl
— ceso (@ceso) August 26, 2013
@ceso I saw ur picture of the sandwiches. Mukhang masarap! Wish I was a civilian, would have enjoyed being w/ u guys 🙂
— kimi cojuangco (@kimicojuangco) August 26, 2013
I hope that politicians stay away from the million march protest activity today. Better to see and hear ordinary citizens and their voices.
— JV Ejercito (@jvejercito) August 26, 2013
@Article8Jester Dapat walang pulitikong um-EPAL sana sa activity. Mas maganda tunay na boses ng taumbayan.
— JV Ejercito (@jvejercito) August 26, 2013
Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, on the other hand, took the time to answer a question on how he used his pork barrel.
@superjudge32 its in our website at http://t.co/5NfStyf3b4 po. principally repair of public markets and med assistance thru regional hosp.
— Chiz Escudero (@SayChiz) August 26, 2013
Here are some tweets on President Aquino’s August 23 announcement that he was going to abolish PDAF. It turned out, he only meant reforming the pork barrel system.
W/ pnoys speech n 15 senators 4 pdaf abolition, now a q of where will the money go? I suggest Education. Scholarships, classrooms, books pcs
— Sonny Angara (@sonnyangara) August 23, 2013
The 4.8 bn pesos representing pdaf of 24 senators can build appriximately 6400 classrooms or at least 3200 library hubs
— Sonny Angara (@sonnyangara) August 23, 2013
Abolishing the pdaf is start but not final solution. Need 4 congress to take back power of purse & legislating the mechnsm release f funds
— Gringo Honasan (@gringo_honasan) August 23, 2013
most important is the passage of the FOI/POGI bill. It will give the government back to the people. No informed citizenry means no democracy
— Gringo Honasan (@gringo_honasan) August 23, 2013
– Rappler.com
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