PIA Press Release
Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Abad: Sen. Revilla’s PDAF at P100M, not P210M

MANILA, Jan. 4 -- The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) today clarified that Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. received only P100 million as part of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation for 2011, and not P210 million as previously reported.

Responding to reports that Senator Revilla received more than his P200-million PDAF allotment, DBM Secretary Florencio B. Abad said that a technical glitch in the uploading module for the DBM's eTAILS (Electronic Transparency and Accountability Initiative for Lump Sum Funds) erroneously replicated a single project listed in Revilla’s PDAF. The glitch, which was successfully corrected today, inflated the figures under the senator’s PDAF release by P110 million.

“We apologize to the public and to Senator Revilla for the confusion caused by the error in our published report. We place a very high premium on the publication of accurate data in our website, and we have taken steps to fix the inaccuracies and ensure that similar mistakes do not happen in the future,” Abad said.

The DBM uses eTAILS to automatically publish fund release reports to its official website. The system does not require the manual entry of data into the program.

Abad added that the error—which created multiple identical entries for the purchase of multicabs and patrol vehicles for the Cavite local government--was reflected only in the web posting module, and not in the official release documents for Revilla's PDAF.

“The release documents for Senator Revilla’s PDAF are unaffected by the technical glitch in our eTAILS module. We are now studying other reports published in the DBM website to check if they have also been hit by the system bug.” Abad said.

“Ultimately, however, we are pleased that the public remains deeply interested in the manner through which we manage the people’s funds. We enjoin all Filipinos—particularly the media and other interested groups—to continue strengthening the feedback mechanism for our processes, so that we can boost efficiency, accuracy, and accountability in all levels of government,” he continued.

Abad further noted that all incumbent senators have already received their respective PDAF releases from the DBM, with the exception of Senator Joker Arroyo and Senator Panfilo Lacson, neither of whom requested fund releases for their projects under the 2011 budget. (DBM)