Budget Secretary Florencio Abad INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Students getting a share from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of lawmakers for their tuition are bound to lose their scholarship grants following the Supreme Court’s decision declaring the congressional discretionary fund as unconstitutional.
In an interview with Radyo Inquirer 990AM anchors Wednesday, Budget Secretary Florencio Butch Abad said about 300,000 students studying in various state universities and colleges are funding their education with the use of PDAF, a euphemism for pork barrel.
“Maho-hold lahat ng mga programang sinusuportahan ng PDAF . . . kaya magigng sakit ng ulo nila yan,” Abad said.
(All projects being supported by PDAF will be put on hold. It will give them headache.)
Voting 14-0, the Supreme Court on Tuesday declared PDAF unconstitutional in a landmark decision that could spell the end of political patronage. The SC added that past and present congressional pork barrel laws are also deemed unconstitutional.
The high court also struck down the discretionary provisions granted the President in the use of multibillion-peso oil revenues from the Malampaya Fund and the Presidential Social Fund—the government share of revenues from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).
In declaring unconstitutional the provisions on the PDAF in the 2013 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and its earlier incarnation, the 1990 Countrywide Development Fund (CDF), the high tribunal held that these arrangements violated the principle of separation of powers.
Reversing itself after thrice upholding the legality of the lawmakers’ pork barrel, the court said that this time it simply “allowed legislators to wield, in varying gradations, nonoversight, postenactment authority in vital areas of budget execution” and denied the President the power to veto items in the GAA.
Apart from students, also affected are those receiving medical assistance, also through pork barrel funds.
While Abad has no exact figures of the beneficiaries, he told Inquirer Radio that the number could be bigger
Asked if the Department of Health can continue giving assistance, Abad said it is possible, but noted that most line agencies which were able to save from their budget may have already used up their savings to support operations for Typhoon Yolanda victims.
To address this matter, Abad said the Executive branch can submit a supplementary budget to Congress. It should be marked by President Benigno Aquino III as “urgent” to speed up the process, considering the year is ending.
“Palagay ko naman kakayanin ’yun. Ilang araw lang ’yan . . . basta magiging malinaw lang kung san ilalagay yung pera,” Abad said.
(I think it can be done. Time is running out…just make it clear where the money would go.)
“Sa tingin ko siguro hindi natin pwedeng talikuran yung mga yun dahil karamihan sa kanila ay galing sa mga mahihirap na pamilya,” he added.
(We can’t turn our back on them because most of them belong to poor families.)
For the full interview, listen to the attached audio clip from Radyo Inquirer 990AM.
Related stories
Gov’t urged to adopt new program for state scholars
House mulls realignment of remaining PDAF as calamity fund