Senator Bam Aquino urges fellow lawmakers to already move for the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), citing other senators who have officially supported the move

For his part, Sen. Aquino suspended his office’s use of their PDAF allocation as early as August 17, 2013 and publicly called for its abolition on August 23, 2013

Later, Sen. Aquino wrote Senate President Franklin Drilon on September 4, 2013, relaying his decision to forego the PDAF of his office for 2013

“This is to respectfully inform you that our office shall not endorse/identify any projects for funding under the PDAF as provided under the General Appropriations Act of 2013,” Aquino said in his letter to Drilon.

Aquino also requested Drilon to declare his allocation of P100 million be declared as savings and reverted to the National Treasury.

In addition, Aquino also wrote Sen. Francis Escudero, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, to inform him of his decision to forego his PDAF for 2014.

In his letter to Sen. Escudero dated November 5, 2013 Sen. Aquino wrote to “relinquish and waive the allocated Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), without any reservations.”

“In foregoing my PDAF allocation from the proposed Php 2.268-trillion 2014 National Budget, the amount of Two Hundred Million Pesos (Php 200,000,000.00) shall therefore be deducted from item XLV Section 1 of the proposed National Expenditure Program for 2014. The said amount shall likewise be deducted from the total budget reflected in the proposed 2014 General Appropriations bill,” the letter states.