Rep. Abad on Batanes PDAF

I wish to respond to Mr. Federico D. Pascual Jr.’s column, “Where has the pork of Batanes’ Abad gone?” where he claimed that Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) released to the lone district of Batanes through my office in 2012 were excessive and disproportionate to my constituent’s needs. He further implied that the size of PDAF releases made to me was due largely to the fact that my spouse, Sec. Florencio Abad, is himself the head of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and that we are now “gorging on pork.”

I am dismayed that Pascual bought into this long-refuted and discredited GMA-Tiglao black propaganda – hook, line, and sinker – which was designed to deceive rather than enlighten the public.

For the record, in 2011, the DBM released only P46,350,000 of our district’s P70-million PDAF allotment for the construction and improvement of multi-purpose buildings, bridges, roads, and farm-to-market roads, as well as for the implementation of scholarship programs and health assistance to indigent patients, among others.

In the first quarter of 2012, our district was released of our remaining 2011 PDAF allocations – amounting to P23,650,000 – as Continuing Appropriations, which were then used for the construction, repair and rehabilitation of a water system in Basco, the construction of the second floor of the Mayan Elementary School and various multi-purpose buildings, among other infrastructure projects.

Altogether, the release of our remaining 2011 PDAF allocation – along with the P68,850,000 later released from my 2012 PDAF for soft and hard projects – brought total PDAF releases to P92.5 million in 2012. If you add this to the 2011 release of P46,350,000 – which should total P138.85 million – and then divide that in two, you would get P69.43 million, an amount that is very clearly lower than the P70 million that every district is entitled to under the GAA.

How can this be excessive or mammoth-like when it is well within the GAA-mandated limit?

The release of unused PDAF allocations from the previous year as Continuing Appropriations is not an irregular or uncommon process. When requesting the release of funds from their PDAF allocations, lawmakers need to satisfy a range of requirements before the release can be successfully facilitated. A deficiency in any of these requirements may lead to delays in the release of PDAF, so that the release of these funds can be facilitated only in the next fiscal year.

Rather than express solidarity and support for our efforts to recover from the devastation brought by “Odette” — the strongest typhoon to hit earth this year and Batanes in the last 25 years – Pascual is instead sowing intrigue and disinformation. – HENEDINA R. ABAD, Deputy Speaker, Representative, Lone District of Batanes