COA to 5 cities, town: Return unused PDAF

The Commission on Audit. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered five cities and one town in Metro Manila to return to the National Treasury P340 million worth of unused pork barrel funds that had been rendered illegal after the Supreme Court’s ruling nine months ago.

The local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila that were cited by the COA for not returning their unused Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as of Dec. 31, 2013, were Mandaluyong City (P179.24 million in unutilized pork funds), Makati City (P54 million), Las Piñas City (P47.835 million), San Juan City (P27.373 million), Marikina City (P18.885 million) and Pateros town (P8.234 million).

Based on these LGUs’ latest annual audit report released by the COA over the weekend, however, all of them except for Mandaluyong and Pateros had fully complied with the COA order over the last three months.

During its audit in the second quarter this year, the COA found that Mandaluyong and Pateros were still holding on to their unused funds even though these should have been returned as early as December last year.

The COA immediately ordered these unused PDAF allocations returned to the treasury along with the interest income earned on these funds that were lodged in the LGUs’ bank accounts during the period.

“The Supreme Court, in an en banc decision promulgated Nov. 19, 2013, declared PDAF unconstitutional. The disbursement or release of remaining PDAF funds allocated for the year 2013, as well as for previous years, which are, at the time of this decision is promulgated, not covered by notice of cash allocations (NCA) but only special allotment release orders (Saros) whether obligated or not, are hereby enjoined. The remaining PDAF funds covered by this permanent injunction shall not be disbursed or released but instead reverted to the unappropriated surplus of the general fund,” it said.

Biggest allocation

Mandaluyong had the biggest PDAF allocation among the LGUs audited by the COA as its sole representative, Neptali Gonzalez II, was a key member of the House coalition and majority leader in the 15th and 16th Congresses.

The COA reported that the management team of Mandaluyong City Mayor Benjamin Abalos Jr. returned only P139.499 million as of June this year while retaining 22 percent, or P39 million, of the unused pork.

It said the city management claimed that it was holding on to the P39 million unused pork as these funds had already been auctioned off as of August 2013 or three months before the SC decision but these had not yet been awarded.

Before returning part of the unused funds, the COA noted that the city’s management was contesting its computations.

“Management commented that PDAF releases for the year 2010 to 2012 for the city were not only covered by Saro but also with NCA, which do not fall within the ambit of the SC directive for the reversion of funds as contained in the dispositive portion of the SC decision,” said the COA, which stood pat on it original claim.

Pateros seeks clarification

In the case of Pateros, Mayor Jaime Medina of the Nacionalista Party refused to refund the P8.234 million in unused pork funds. The COA said the Pateros management would seek clarification from the Department of Budget and Management on how to treat pork funds transferred to LGUs for projects that had not yet been implemented.

Makati, under Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr., was assessed to have P54.7 million in unused PDAF as of December 2013.

But the city’s spokesman, Joey Salgado, claimed that the COA gave the order to return the funds in April this year and that the mayor promptly remitted back the entire amount in June. Binay’s sister, Marlem Abigail, is a representative of the city.

Question of interests

The third-biggest refund was made by Las Piñas, which was the beneficiary of the pork funds of former Sen. Manuel Villar, Rep. Mark Villar and then Rep. (now Sen.) Cynthia Villar in 2010.

The COA noted that the unused PDAF in Las Piñas yielded P3.628 million in interest earnings from the bank from 2008 and September 2013, which it also wanted returned.

Las Piñas returned the P47.835 million on March 6 this year but asked for more time in determining how much of the interest should be returned since the unused PDAF money was mixed with other funds of the city.

The fourth-biggest refund was made by San Juan City with P27.373 million as of May this year with a minimal balance left worth less than P1 million.

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, son of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez, stressed that there was nothing newsworthy about this COA report. “What is important is that the money was returned. I’m sure the others did not.”

Marikina returned P18.885 million in unused pork funds to the Treasury in May.

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