The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also known as pork barrel funds are

discretionary funds allocated to legislators for local pet projects. These projects can be anything
related to education, health, livelihood, social services and other projects that the legislator deem
necessary in their area of governance.

However, 8 years ago, a multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam has been discovered and
investigations led the supreme court to declare it unconstitutional.

Through my readings, I was able to know that the intention behind the pork barrel was to
"empower the legislators to identify key projects that local government units could not fund".
However, as much as I applaud the goal, years of corruption and dishonesty in the Philippine
politics made me doubt about the integrity of the politicians/legislators to actually carry out its
intention without their own personal agenda. I have also read that it has been a subject of
criticisms throughout the years, especially when it was found by the Department of Budget and
Management that it has "opened avenues for pillaging the national budget".

But how is the PDAF unconstitutional?

Sources from different media and personalities cited in Philippine news (i.e. Philippine
Inquirer, Rapler, Manila Bulletin, CNN, etc) have a lot of explanations. But my understanding of
why the PDAF is unconstitutional relate to the explanation that there should be separation of
power between the 3 branches of the government. In this case, as soon as the legislators pass the
annual budget law (including the PDAF), they should no longer have any participation in its
implementation. This is further because the implementation is the job of the executive branch of
the government. Their participation in the PDAF violated separation of powers between the
legislative and executive.
A quote, cited in manilastandard.net sums it up when it said, “from the moment the law
becomes effective, any provision of law that empowers Congress or any of its members to play
any role in the implementation or enforcement of the law violates the principle of separation of
powers and is thus unconstitutional.” It also violated the principle of check and balance the
subjects are actually taking part of what supposed to be something they should be checking on.