Palace careful on Jinggoy’s PDAF realignment issue

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang yesterday tread carefully on the issue of the P100-million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) realigned by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada for Manila which is now governed by his father Joseph as mayor.

Senator Estrada has been linking the PDAF issue to politics, particularly the 2016 elections.

He claims the administration is targeting him to derail any plans to run for higher office two and a half years from now.

Asked why President Aquino did not directly veto Senator Estrada’s PDAF realignment in the 2014 General Appropriations Act even after saying he was for its abolition, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the explanation in the Chief Executive’s veto message would speak for itself.

“If you read the veto message of the President, it’s quite clear. There are items under direct veto, there are items under conditional implementation and the reasons are stated,” Valte said over radio dzRB.

She said people should not read too much into it because “it’s exactly what it is, what it says: it’s conditional implementation.”

“There are guidelines that have to be drafted for the utilization of that particular fund. I understand that there are some lawmakers who are saying that they’re interpreting it to be a direct veto but, according also to (Budget and Management) Secretary (Florencio) Abad, it’s not necessarily a veto. That’s why we also have to confer with the legislators to understand exactly the intent behind that amendment,” Valte said.

The “conditional implementation“ phrase, according to lawmakers and political observers, gives the Palace the power to release or withhold the funds, depending on its judgment.

Senator Estrada’s critics said what he did could be legal but it was certainly lacking in propriety or delicadeza since he had been embroiled in the PDAF controversy and the funds would go directly to his father’s local government unit that could compromise check and balance, transparency and accountability.

Senator Estrada has been alleged to have pocketed PDAF or pork barrel funds through ghost non-government organizations created by suspected PDAF scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles.

Other senators defended him, saying the utilization of the funds would be subject to the Commission on Audit (COA)’s scrutiny anyway.

No violations

Meanwhile, Senate finance committee chairman Sen. Francis Escudero maintained yesterday that the Senate and the House of Representatives have not violated any law when some of them allocated their pork barrel funds to certain pet projects or, in the case of Senator Estrada, to the city of Manila.

“There is nothing irregular, illegal or unconstitutional with respect to the budget that we approved,” Escudero said.

He reiterated that the lawmakers even quoted the decision of the Supreme Court on disallowing post-enactment intervention by any lawmaker under the 2014 appropriations act.

“The Senate approved it, the bicam approved it. It was carried and passed by both Houses,” he said in an earlier interview.

Escudero also clarified that he did not say that congressmen have no reason to complain over how senators allocated their PDAF since they also exercised their discretion over their own funds.

He said he may have been misquoted when he said that it is unfair to judge Senator Estrada over his decision.

Escudero said in his previous interviews that senators have agreed to respect their individual decision on what to do with their PDAF.

Nine senators, namely Senators Estrada, his half-brother Sen. Juan Victor Ejercito, siblings Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, Senators Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, Ralph Recto, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Antonio Trillanes IV realigned their allocations. –  With Christina Mendez