Press Release
November 8, 2013

CHIZ GIVES UP PDAF

The chairman of the Senate finance committee is letting go of his priority development assistance fund (PDAF) as he pushes for its abolition.

Senator Chiz Escudero has formally notified the finance committee that he will forego his P200 million PDAF allocation and asked that the entire amount be deducted from next year's total budget of P2.268 trillion.

Earlier on, Escudero called for the total abolition of the PDAF through Senate Resolution No. 193. He said Congress should limit itself to the enactment of the national budget but added that he cannot decide for his colleagues on this matter.

"Abolition to me is totally removing or subtracting the allocation from the national budget. That is why I filed a resolution to get the senate sense in scrapping the PDAF. But during the caucus we had before we went on a break, there was an agreement to leave the senators to their individual decisions regarding what to do with their PDAF."

Escudero said his colleagues will have to formally inform the finance committee on what they want to do with their allocation. He said the senators have until November 11 to notify the committee.

"During the caucus I told my colleagues that if they don't submit their position, I will retain their PDAF allocation in the original proposal of Congress which is to realign the PDAF into the lump sum items for four government agencies. These are the DOE, DSWD, DOLE and CHED."

Since there is no singular position in the senate on the disbursement of the PDAF, Escudero said the individual positions of the senators will come out as an amendment to the version of the House as approved on third reading.

As this developed, Escudero said there are already eight senators, including himself and Senate President Franklin Drilon, who have already taken positions about their PDAF.

He said the committee will wait until after the November 11 deadline before coming out with the list.

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