Ex-budget chief Andaya urged to explain PDAF disbursement

MANILA, Philippines - Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile on Friday asked former Department of Budget Management secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. to cooperate with the Commission on Audit (COA) to allow the body to get a full grasp of how the pork barrel were disbursed during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“I think as a former head of the budget office, he (Andaya) should at least clarify that portion of the report of the COA where P69.2 billion of public funds were allocated to certain legislators but the records are not being disclosed,” Enrile said in a press briefing at the Senate.

Enrile said he also wants to know if he has been among the beneficiaries of those funds.

He insisted that with the DBM's refusal to cooperate prevented the COA from getting the total picture of how the P115.988-billion in Priority Development and Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Various Infrastructure including Local Projects (VILP) during the special audit period for 2007 to 2009.

Enrile added that the COA was only able to trace or audit P46.727-billion or 40 percent of the total amount because of the DBM's failure or refusal to cooperate with the audit.

The former Senate president also supports the abolition of the PDAF popularly known as the pork barrel fund.

“But if it must be scrapped, the pork barrel should be scrapped totally,” he said.

He explained that aside from the lawmakers' PDAF, those included as lump sum appropriations for the national government's departments under the General Appropriations Act should also be totally scrapped.