Priority Development Assistance Fund

{{Short description|Discretionary fund available to members of the Congress of the Philippines}} The '''Priority Development Assistance Fund''' ('''PDAF''') was a discretionary fund in the Philippines available to members of Congress. Originally established as the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) in 1990, it was designed to allow legislators to fund small-scale infrastructure or community projects which fell outside the scope of the national infrastructure program, which was often restricted to large infrastructure items.<ref name = "whitepaper">{{citation | author1-link = Prospero Nograles| last1 = Nograles | first1 = Prospero C | author2-link = Edcel Lagman | last2 = Lagman | first2 = Edcel C | title = Understanding the Pork Barrel | publisher= House of Representatives of the Philippines | url = http://www.congress.gov.ph/pdaf/news/pork_barrel.pdf | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120417145905/http://www.congress.gov.ph/pdaf/news/pork_barrel.pdf | archivedate= April 17, 2012 | access-date =August 20, 2013}}</ref>

The PDAF was commonly called the "pork barrel", and was the subject of much public criticism following exposés on abuses perpetuated by members of Congress on use of the fund in 1996 and 2013.

On November 19, 2013, the Supreme Court declared the PDAF unconstitutional, thereby abolishing it.<ref>{{cite news |last=Diola |first=Camille |date=19 November 2013 |title=SC declares PDAF unconstitutional |work=The Philippine Star |publisher=Philstar Global Corp. |url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/11/19/1258492/sc-declares-pdaf-unconstitutional |access-date=28 October 2019}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://pdaf.dbm.gov.ph/ PDAF portal] at the website of the Department of Budget and Management

Category:Politics of the Philippines Category:1990 establishments in the Philippines Category:2013 disestablishments in the Philippines Category:Funds Category:Political corruption in the Philippines