Makati returns P 54M ‘unused pork’ from Jojo, Abby Binay, etc
THE CITY government of Makati said it had remitted to the Bureau of Treasury some P54.7 million in “unutilized” Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more commonly known as the controversial pork barrel, in compliance with last year’s Supreme Court decision declaring it unconstitutional.
Former, current solons
According to a statement from city hall, the returned amount represented different funds coming from several former and current legislators who had PDAFfunded projects in the city, not just from incumbent Makati Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, sister of Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr.
It also included funds from the Office of the Vice President, currently occupied by the Binay patriarch and former Makati Mayor Jejomar Sr.
The statement identified the other sources as Edgardo Angara, Antonio Trillanes IV, Teresa Aquino-Oreta, Aquilino Pimentel, Antonio Trillanes IV, Emeline Aglipay, Agapito Aquino, Arlene Bag-ao, Laarni Cayetano, Neri Javier Colmenares, Zenaida de Castro, Emerenciana de Jesus, Cinchona Gonzales, Monique Yazmin Lagdameo, Teodoro Locsin Jr., Loreta Ann Rosales, Mark Aeron Sambar, Patricia Serenas, Mariano Michael Velarde, Renee Velarde and Joel Villanueva.
Before 2010 polls
City hall spokersperson Joey Salgado said most of the unused PDAF were coursed through the city government even before the 2010 elections and during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Most of them were not used because of the absence of memorandums of understanding between the legislator, the implementing agency, and the beneficiaries. Without that and other documentary requirements, the city government could not disburse the funds,” Salgado said in a phone interview.
‘Just a custodian’
Some of the funds were no longer touched also because of the Nov. 13, 2013, Supreme Court ruling declaring the PDAF as unconstitutional, he added.
Mayor Binay stressed that “Makati, after all, is just the custodian of the fund. The legislators are the ones who decide where they want to use their PDAF.”