Carpio hits 2013 PDAF, says it is 'unconstitutional'

MANILA, Philippines - For Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio it is simple: the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or "pork barrel" in the 2013 General Appropriations Act is unconstitutional.

"This is very simple ... you can declare the PDAF (facially) unconstitutional," Carpio said during the oral arguments on the PDAF Tuesday.

Interpellating lawyer John Molo who argued on the lack of constitutional basis of the PDAF, Carpio said the provisions in the 2013 lump sum appropriation released by the Department of Budget Management (DBM) violated the law.

Related: LIVE coverage: The 'pork barrel' at the Supreme Court

He said DBM gave the power to legislators to concur with the realignment and identify projects to be appropriated for--a practice that breaches the separation of executive and legislative powers.

"In project identification, when legislature's concurrence is needed, it is binding already on the executive," Carpio said, adding that the law also prohibits Cabinet secretaries to realign funds.

The magistrate added that Molo need not cite findings of the Commission on Audit on the PDAF since sharing the power of the President with a House or Senate committee is already unconstitutional.

Carpio, however, distinguished the 2013 PDAF from earlier rulings on similar appropriations.

"We are deciding a completely different PDAF provision from that which the SC decided in (Philippine Constitution Association) and (Lawyers Against Monopoly and Poverty); they are not precedents," the justice said.

He explained that preceding PDAF provisions only gave the legislature the power to recommend where the funds are spent.

The 2013 PDAF, in contrast, allows individual legislators to exercise mandatory powers over the funds, which Carpio said, violates fundamental laws.

The Supreme Court had issued a temporary restraining order on the PDAF as well as the Malampaya funds and the Presidential Social Funds last September amid public outrage over misuse of pork barrel in the legislature.