PDAF scholars can still get funds, says legislator

House appropriations chair Rep. Isidro Ungab: Budget assurance. Photo from congress.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines—Scholars dependent on the now-scrapped pork barrel need not despair. According to House appropriations chair Rep. Isidro Ungab, they still have a chance to receive funding for their education under the 2014 national budget.

Ungab said the budget contains a provision stating that the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) should ensure that scholars whose funding came from other sources should continue to receive assistance.

The provision was introduced as an amendment by the Senate panel, Ungab said, adding that this would see to it that the lawmakers’ current scholars need not stop schooling next year.

Lawmakers had earlier lamented the removal of their pork barrel, formally known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), saying that this would adversely affect thousands of students and medical beneficiaries who depend on the assistance they dispense.

Before the Supreme Court declared the PDAF unconstitutional, the House of Representatives had excised the P25-billion fund from the 2014 budget and distributed the amount to six executive agencies.

The funds went to the CHEd, Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Also deleted from the budget was P3.2 billion representing the PDAF of 15 senators and Vice President Jejomar Binay, who had chosen to give up their pork barrel following the public outcry after allegations that the funds were being channeled to bogus nongovernment organizations and to private pockets surfaced.