MANILA - Malacañang will no longer allow the use of legislators' 2010 pork barrel for road humps and waiting sheds. 

Aside from slashing legislators' Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2010, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. on Thursday said there will be new rules to guide the fund's implementation.  

“There is a menu of permissible programs like education, health, livelihood, housing, water supply, irrigation, public works, police equipment, and reforestation,” Andaya said. "Humps and waiting sheds are therefore in the negative list."

The purchase of goods and services, including infrastructure projects, will be subjected to the rules and regulations of the Government Policy Procurement Board and the Commission on Audit (COA).  

Malacañang has submitted a P1.541 trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2010. It is higher than the P1.426 approved 2009 national budget.

The PDAF, or more popularly known as pork barrel, was slashed by P2.725 billion--from P9.666 billion in the 2009 approved budget to P6.940 billion in the 2010 proposed budget.
 
Returning to old budget

However, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is actually only returning to its previous P6.2 billion allocation for PDAF. It was a bicameral committee which increased it to P9.666 billion last January.

After going through deliberations in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the budget allocation increased to P6.24 billion and P7.3 billion in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), respectively.  

It further ballooned to P9.665 billion after the deliberations in the bicameral conference committee. In 2008, P7.9 billion was allocated to PDAF.  

Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto earlier said the adjustment for 2010 was one of the ways they adopted to address the bigger deficit expected next year.  

“We’re cutting PDAF by almost 30 percent and we hope that this will meet the concurrence of Congress,” said Andaya.

Various calls have been made to scrap the PDAF altogether. But Andaya said it will be hard to remove PDAF from the budget “as it has been a regular fixture of GAAs.”

“But the rule in budgeting is that the executive proposes, Congress disposes. So if the legislature will do away with it, then it is a decision we should all accept, “ he said.  

Midnight deals

Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño, meantime, warned against “midnight deals” in the 2010 budget, especially since 2010 is an election year and many of the legislators are either seeking re-election or are seeking higher office.  

“Maraming big-ticket projects na pwedeng ipasok sa budget,” he said.

Even worse would be a reenacted budget, Casiño said. 

“It’s been a time-tested strategy of the administration to give them the most flexibility in the re-alignment of funds,” he said.

Under a reenacted budget, President Arroyo will have the power to use budgetary allocations for projects that have already been implemented the previous year.

But House Speaker Prospero Nograles vowed there will be no re-enacted budget. The 2010 GAA includes funding for the 2010 elections, he said.  

“The country cannot afford such a scenario. The timetable could be tight but early passage is not impossible. We will be deliberate but thorough in the consideration of the P1.541-trillion legacy budget,” Nograles said in a statement.

The House of Representatives will begin budget deliberations next week. Session will adjourn on October 17. Congress will only be back for a few weeks in November. The deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacies is on November 30.