SCUTTLEBUTT

DAP, PDAF morph via bicam

A constitutional law expert believes that both Supreme Court decisions on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) might have been breached with the P142 billion in insertions in the 2025 budget traced to the Senate leadership.

The High Court disallowed Congress from executing projects through the PDAF, while it barred the Executive from appropriating funds through methods to build up the PDAF.

The PDAF, commonly referred to as pork barrel, enabled legislators to allocate funds for projects in their districts.

In 2013, the SC declared the PDAF unconstitutional in Belgica v. Ochoa. It struck down the budget provision for violating the separation of powers.

The specified projects in the bicam report mirror the PDAF’s unconstitutional practice of lawmakers identifying projects after the budget is proposed. The SC ruling requires project selections to occur during the budget legislation (before the bicam) with clear, merit-based criteria, not in secretive negotiations as allegedly finalized in a “small bicam” led by Senate President Chiz Escudero.

The alleged 2025 insertions were described as “generic” with “minimal technical details” (e.g., flood control projects split into “phases” or “segments”).

The DAP ruling struck down the practice of declaring funds as “savings” before a fiscal year’s end or without the project completion. The blank items in the 2025 bicam report could serve as placeholders for funds that the executive, through the Department of Budget and Management, might later declare as savings for realignment, similar to DAP’s National Budget Circular 541.

An ace lawyer told Nosy Tarsee that the bicam’s opacity enables the insertions and other abuse of the budget by preventing oversight.

A full investigation and the SC’s call for arguments on the budget could clarify whether the insertions breached constitutional standards.

Systemic reforms, such as an “open bicam,” that will be livestreamed, are essential to align the budget process with the strict guidelines outlined in the DAP and PDAF decisions.