Pork Barrel (PDAF) Watch

The Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) monitors the allocation and usage of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel allocated by congressmen and senators to various districts and projects. The project’s goal is to ensure the proper use of public funds allocated by congressmen and senators for their constituents.

Commitments of Support and Cooperation Agreements between CODE-NGO and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) were signed on 25 February by CODE-NGO Chairperson Aurora Tolentino, DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, and DBM Undersecretary Mario Relampagos.

CODE-NGO started off its project by asking 235 congresspersons and 23 senators for data on their Priority Development Assistance Fund projects. Only eight willingly provided data. But it did not stop the project team from reviewing materials from the DBM and DPWH, its partner agencies.

The team initially checked the PDAF of 103 congresspersons in 2003 and 74 congresspersons in 2004. They looked at the type of projects, contractors, implementing agencies, beneficiaries, and actual project accomplishments. The common projects funded by PDAF were described as “priority programs and projects, construction/infrastructure, and IT related projects.”

Local governments and the Public Works, Education, and Social Welfare departments were cited as the most common implementing agencies. The bulk of the PDAF infrastructure projects implemented by DPWH went to roads/highways, bridges, multi-purpose buildings, and barangay halls. Volunteers will also assess the actual projects at the field level in 2006. 

After repeated follow-up via telephone, eight congresspersons responded positively, meaning, they will provide written materials/reports on their funded projects; two congresspersons already submitted materials; one senator already sent a reply which says that his office had not yet allocated his PDAF funds; and ten responded negatively or they will not do anything about it. A number of legislators have already read the request letter but have not issued a response yet. These letters were a test of how willing legislators are in providing data on their PDAFs. Even if a congressperson refuses to give data, the project team will still check his/her use of public funds.

The project team also received data from the DBM on the releases of the PDAF. But in seeking additional information, the DBM referred the team to its web site. Unfortunately, part of the DBM office was burned and its web site became temporarily inaccessible. The DBM liaison officers were asked if the team can access the data through other locations. But they said that these were not also available as of November 2005. By December, the data were made available again on the DBM’s web site. For 2004, some P15.81 billion was allocated and released to congresspersons while about P3.51 billion was released to Senators. In August 2005, the House received P3.45 billion while the Senate got P587.5 million. (see Table 2)

Being analyzed now are the following: 1) overview of projects of each legislator (type of projects, contractors, implementing agencies, recipients and beneficiaries, and amount); 2) trends of projects (types, average amounts, time of completion, etc.); 3) project accomplishments (plan versus actual); and 4) process in project identification, bidding, awarding, implementation and reporting.