By Sammy F. Martin
MANILA, (PNA) — The House of Representatives has introduced a new scheme on how legislators can implement their projects for their constituents even with the scrapping of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel..p>Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales 2nd said they have scrapped P25.2 Billion PDAF in the 2014 General Appropriations Act.
Instead. the House allocated P24 Billion in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget for legislators’ infrastructure projects.
“The current plan is a maximum of P24 million hard projects to be itemized in the budget,” Belmonte told reporters in a chance interview.
On Monday, the House formally deleted the P25.2 billion PDAF item in the proposed 2014 budget and distributed it to the following agencies:• P2.66 billion to Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for education and scholarship• P1.02 billion to Department of Education (DepEd) for education and scholarship• P3.69 billion to Department of Health for hospitalization and medical assistance• P4.71 billion to Department of Social Welfare and Development for assistance to persons in crisis• P3.69 billion to Department of Labor and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for employment and training assistance• P9.65 billion to Department of Public Works and Highways for infrastructure projects (itemized projects to be identified later by the lawmakers)
Each Senator used to received P200 Million PDAF while Congressmen, P70 Million each.
Under the new scheme, lawmakers may still propose projects but these need to be identified and included in the budget process as items under the DPWH.
Belmonte and Gonzales urged lawmakers to limit their choices to a few projects.
“The DPWH wants as few projects as possible,” Belmonte said.
Gonzales said the ideal should be from only one to five projects, although he acknowledged that some lawmakers might need more smaller projects, especially those from the provinces, whose districts cover many barangays.
“Ang problema, iyong mga nasa probinsya. Sa Metro Manila, mas konti ang kailangan na infrastructure.”
The majority leader said each congressman has to submit their proposals within the budget period so these can be included in the approval on third reading of the General Appropriations bill, which is scheduled on the last week of October.