Solgen asks SC to lift TRO on ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines - Not every centavo in the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) has been misused.

This was the argument raised by the executive and legislative branches of government in asking the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday to lift its temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the release of the remaining PDAF in this year’s national budget.

In a 23-page consolidated comment filed Monday by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), Malacañang and Congress appealed to the high court’s “humanitarian considerations” since part of PDAF is allocated to existing scholarships and medical assistance to indigent patients under the special provision of the General Appropriations Act of 2013.

The OSG argued the TRO has “foreseeable damage to our scholars and ailing, indigent citizens who rely on the PDAF for public assistance,” revealing that a total of 809,372 indigent patients have benefited from the funds since 2010 and that there are also 412,078 scholars who rely on the discretionary funds of Congress.

“It is reasonable to assume that there are hundreds of thousands of indigent Filipino patients desperately in need of some form of medical assistance. Funds for medical assistance to indigent patients under the 2013 GAA are released directly to government hospitals, and not through non-government organizations,” the OSG said.

“There are students who are currently enrolled for academic school year 2013 - 2014 in various colleges all over the country and whose continued education is at risk because of the possibility that the public assistance to them might not be forthcoming as a consequence of this Honorable Court’s TRO.”

As proof, the state counsel also submitted to the SC letters of two beneficiaries of the program.

The OSG also urged the SC to lift the TRO on the Malampaya gas funds, which it said are “subject to well-defined standards in the use of public funds for public purposes.”

With this, the OSG asked the SC to order the lifting or partial lifting of the TRO to allow the government to continue its assistance to indigent students and patients.

The state counsel also urged the high court to dismiss the consolidated petitions filed by petitioners Greco Belgica and Samson Alcantara and former Boac, Marinduque mayor Pedrito Nepomuceno questioning the constitutionality of PDAF system and use of Malampaya Funds for projects not related to energy.

The government counsel stressed that SC already upheld the constitutionality of the PDAF system in previous cases.

While it admitted there are “problems of implementation” in the PDAF system – referring to reported abuses and scams – the OSG argued the issue should be resolved by a “political solution.”

“A decision of the Honorable Court may preempt the efforts of the President and Congress, and a judicial solution may inadvertently limit a more progressive solution,” the OSG said.

The OSG pointed to “backward- and forward-looking progressive, remedial and responsive actions” taken by the executive and legislative branches, including filing of plunder charges against those behind the scam before the Ombudsman and the proposed abolition of PDAF.

“The political branches are already in the process of dismantling the PDAF system and reforming the budgetary process in response to the implementation problems highlighted by the COA (Commission on Audit) and the justifiable public outrage that followed its release. Reforms are already underway,” it said.  -Aurea Calica