Palace: Wait for SC ruling on ‘pork barrel’

A Palace official said Wednesday the public should wait for the ruling of the Supreme Court on the fate of the controversial “pork barrel” funds and the Disbursement Acceleration Program before launching a people’s initiative on the abolition of all forms of “pork barrel.” 
“There are cases now that are filed to question PDAF and DAP. Hayaan na muna natin… [ang Supreme Court]. Sila na muna bahala. May parallel efforts, we’ll let it (sic) run its course. Kung ano mauna, tignan po natin,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a media briefing.
Lacierda was reacting to former SC Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s call for a people’s initiative by gathering five million signatures to abolish PDAF and DAP.
The High Court is still holding oral arguments on the constitutionality of PDAF. Meanwhile, it has set the oral arguments for DAP on Oct. 22.
During the oral arguments, the SC’s most senior magistrate Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the PDAF in the 2013 General Appropriations Act “is facially unconstitutional” and violates the 1987 Constitution because it allowed the President and Congress to share powers.
He also cited provisions in the 2013 GAA allowing Cabinet secretaries to realign funds and give lawmakers the privilege of identifying projects under the funds.
“I don’t want to argue with the associate justice… the president approves the realignment of the savings and that’s under the Constitution,” Lacierda said.
The issue on the PDAF or “pork barrel” funds became a hot item recently after several lawmakers allegedly channeled their PDAF to fake non-government organizations owned by detained Janet Lim Napoles.
One of those tagged in the controversy was Sen. Jinggoy Estrada who revealed in a privilege speech two weeks ago the distribution of P50 million to senators who voted for the conviction of former SC Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Lacierda maintained that the Aquino administration can defend the use of DAP and clarified that it is not a fund but a mechanism to accelerate spending.
“We’re confident we can defend the DAP… ang PDAF, nasabi na po ni Pangulong Aquino na na-abolish na po ang PDAF,” he said.
“What a Supreme Court case will do is to ensure that it will not be resurrected again. That is the purpose of a case filed before the SC,” he added.
For his part, Communications Sec. Ricky Carandang said the Aquino government has been more transparent than the previous administrations in the use of DAP or realigned savings.
At a briefing with the Philippine media delegation in Brunei, Carandang said it was the initiative of the Aquino administration to show to public how much savings have been accumulated since 2011.
“So I think there was a lot of transparency in the use of realigned savings. The fact that we even gave it a name, Disbursement Acceleration Program, shows that we weren’t hiding anything and we were actually telling people what it was,” he said.
“It’s all on record since 2011 where—how much savings we had, where we intend to use it—and we continue to disclose and to announce how much savings we have and where we intend to use it, and we will continue to do so,” he added. [PNA]