MANILA, Philippines - MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court en banc on Tuesday declared the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or congressional pork barrel unconstitutional.
Voting 14-0, the magistrates ruled in favor of a slate of
petitions, among which was filed by losing senatorial candidates Greco Belgica
and Samson Alcantara challenging the discretionary funds' legality.
"The court hereby declares as unconstitutional the
entire 2013 PDAF article (and) all legal provisions of past and present
congressional pork barrel law such as previous PDAF articles, various
insertions unrelated to the power of congressional oversight," Supreme
Court spokesman Theodore Te said in a press conference on Tuesday.
With the ruling, the standing restraining order on the
Department of Budget and Management's PDAF releases is made permanent.
The law's provisions allowing legislators to determine the
funded projects and related practices deemed to be an abuse of legislative and
executive powers have also been declared unlawful.
The high court, voting 13-0, similarly ruled that the
Malampaya fund to be used solely for energy-related government projects,
barring the president from using the fund's discretionary provision to
divert the fund to other purposes.
The court also found releases of the Presidential Social
Fund for infrastructure projects without constitutional basis.
President Benigno Aquino III, meanwhile, would prefer to
receive a copy of the Supreme Court decision first before issuing a comment,
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Sonny Coloma
Jr. said.
Senate President Franklin Drilon welcomed the high court's
ruling, issuing a statement right after the announcement.
"The highest court's decision is moot and academic
insofar the Senate is concerned," Drilon said.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that
Congress is still studying the latest decision and is looking to issue a
resolution to transfer the remaining 2013 PDAF to calamity funds for the
victims of super-typhoon Yolanda.
Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio had said during the
oral deliberations on the petitions in October that the PDAF is "facially
unconstitutional" as it allows the executive disbursing the funds to
breach its separation from the legislative.
The pork barrel has been met with public outrage following
the Commission on Audit (COA) special report citing gross misuse of lawmakers'
funds.
The Department of Justice, tracing the COA report, has filed
plunder charges against several lawmakers alleged to be involved in the
PDAF scam believed to be masterminded by detained businesswoman Janet Lim
Napoles. - with reports from Christina Mendez
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