Did Drilon find a TRO workaround by realigning PDAF?

Senate President Frank Drilon filed a resolution to realign the senators’ remaining Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF to the executive’s calamity fund. The Supreme Court stopped the release of the remaining PDAF for 2013, but Drilon wanted to consider the unreleased pork barrel as “savings” so they can be used to help calamity victims. Each of the 24 senators is allotted P200 million in PDAF each year. If divided into quarterly releases, the fund would still have at least P1.2 billion in the last 4 months of the year. The High Court has yet to release its decision on the constitutionality of the allocations.

Asked if the Senate is preempting the Court’s resolution on the constitutionality of the PDAF, Drilon said, “They can still resolve it. That’s their prerogative. We are an independent body. We can make our own decision.” The Senate’s contribution to Malacañang’s calamity fund would be used for the victims of last week’s earthquake in Central Visayas and the typhoon-affected areas in Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, and Tarlac.
Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano also filed Senate Resolution 305, urging the Executive to realign the unreleased PDAF in the 2013 GAA to a “special supplemental calamity fund.”
 
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