Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Senators emerged from a two-hour caucus late Wednesrday afternoon without a clear consensus on whether to scrap the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from the 2014 budget.
Senate President Franklin Drilon, who vowed to lead his colleagues in the total abolition of the PDAF from the budget, said some senators favored totally scrapping it, but others broached the idea of realigning it to the calamity fund.
“In a sense, there was no consensus,” he later told reporters. “But I could sense that the majority would want to scrap it.”
If at all, the senators agreed to submit their final positions on the disposition of their respective PDAF on Nov. 11 so these would be incorporated into the finance committee’s report on the P2.268-trillion 2014 budget, Drilon said.
The finance committee report on the budget measure would be reported out in plenary on Nov. 18 when Congress resumes its session. It adjourned Wednesday for a three-week recess.
“In general, there were many senators in favor of abolishing (PDAF). But there were a number of views like: Can we not do what we did in the 2013 balance and put it all in calamity fund?” Drilon said.
Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano was among those who suggested realigning the senators’ total PDAF of P4.8 billion to the calamity fund. “The typhoon-hit areas need this fund,” he told reporters.
On Tuesday night, the House of Representatives approved the proposed P2.268-trillion 2014 budget, realigning P25 billion in the PDAF to six agencies. However, the House members retained the power to propose infrastructure projects, which critics said showed that they have not given up on their pork.
While 17 senators were reported to be backing the PDAF abolition, Drilon said only Loren Legarda and Vicente Sotto III told him they would let go of their PDAF.
Before the caucus, Sotto and five other members of the minority in interviews with the Inquirer appeared to have reached a consensus on excising the PDAF.
“It should be totally scrapped so that we can say straight to people’s faces that there’s no PDAF,” neophyte Sen. Nancy Binay said.
“That’s the proper direction to take. That’s the clamor. We serve public interest,” Sen. Gregorio Honasan III said.
Sen. JV Ejercito agreed: “We’re representatives of the people. If that’s the clamor, we have to follow.”
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said, “Yes, I’m for total abolition.”
Drilon said that if all senators agreed on the total abolition, their total PDAF of P4.8 billion would be deducted from the national budget, and would not be realigned.
Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said that if PDAF were to be totally scrapped, it should be done by the entire Congress. If only the Senate would scrap it, the amount would only end up in unprogrammed funds at the disposal of the Executive Department, a view disputed by Drilon.
Osmeña said he also favored realigning his entire PDAF to an agency. He said he could identify projects, but this should be approved by the chamber, or the agency could identify the projects.
“Let me repeat: Identify projects if you want. But subject it to the approval of the total votes of all the congressmen and all the senators. Because that is the power of Congress, the power of the purse,” he told reporters.
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