PDAF was allocated P 7.9 Billion in 2008, and this has been increased by P 1.8 Billion to P 9.7 Billion in 2009. “But each congressperson in 2008 was allocated P 70 Million and each senator P200 Million in ‘PDAF’ or a total of P21.3 Billion, not just P 7.9 Billion. So where did the additional P13.4 Billion come from? This is from the congressional allocations in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)”, Macasaet continued. “We have yet to see the approved 2009 budget to see how much was given to the legislators in the DPWH budget, but we assume their share there was also increased”, he added.

Strictly speaking, PDAF refers only to the lump sum allocation with that title in the government’s annual budget. However, legislators commonly refer to “soft” and “hard” components of their PDAF. The “soft” component is the PDAF line item in the budget or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) while the “hard” component refers to their share in the DPWH budget in the GAA. Last year, congresspersons were allocated P 20 Million in “soft PDAF” and P 50 Million in “hard PDAF”. Actually, legislators even get additional allocations from other government agencies for projects in their districts. It has been reported, for example, that the Technical Skills Education and Development Authority (TESDA) has promised each congressperson P2 Million from its budget.

With the bigger pork barrel and the economic crisis, CODE-NGO bewailed the continued lack of transparency about the pork barrel funds of the legislators. In October-November 2007, CODE-NGO wrote to all the legislators of the present Congress to request for information regarding their policies about their PDAF funds and their list of projects. Follow-up letters were sent in April 2008. But only 12 of the 261 congresspersons and senators provided such information. CODE-NGO acknowledged the positive action of the House of Representatives in early 2008 of uploading in its website the list of the allocated PDAF projects of the congresspersons. However, only 105 of the 238 House members had posted their list of projects and only for the year 2007. Also, the list on the website indicates only the allocated or planned projects, but does not include the actual fund releases. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) used to post in its website the fund releases for the legislators’ PDAF, but the department stopped this practice in 2006 for unknown reasons. “We hope the DBM, the House and the Senate will provide updated information on the PDAF allocations and releases so that their constituents can more easily monitor the PDAF projects and ensure the proper use of these funds”, CODE-NGO said. “With the economic crisis and the loss of jobs and incomes that our people are facing, it is vital that every peso of the government’s budget is used for the welfare of the people.”