The Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, also called the PDAF scam or the pork barrel scam, is a

political scandal involving the alleged misuse by several members of the Congress of the Philippines of
their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF, popularly called "pork barrel"), a lump-sum
discretionary fund granted to each member of Congress for spending on priority development projects
of the Philippine government, mostly on the national level.

The scam was first exposed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 12, 2013, with the six-part exposé of
the Inquirer on the scam pointing to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles as the scam's mastermind after
Benhur K. Luy, her second cousin and former personal assistant, was rescued by agents of the National
Bureau of Investigation on March 22, 2013, four months after he was detained by Napoles at her unit at
the Pacific Plaza Towers in Fort Bonifacio. Initially centering on Napoles' involvement in the 2004
Fertilizer Fund scam, the government investigation on Luy's testimony has since expanded to cover
Napoles' involvement in a wider scam involving the misuse of PDAF funds from 2003 to 2013.

It is estimated that the Philippine government was defrauded of some ₱10 billion in the course of the
scam, having been diverted to Napoles, participating members of Congress and other government
officials. Aside from the PDAF and the fertilizer fund maintained by the Department of Agriculture,
around ₱900 million in royalties earned from the Malampaya gas field were also lost to the scam. The
scam has provoked public outrage, with calls being made on the Internet for popular protests to demand
the abolition of the PDAF, and the order for Napoles' arrest sparking serious discussion online.

Although the history of pork barrel-like discretionary funds in the Philippines dates back to 1922, during
the American colonial period, the PDAF in its current form was only established during the
administration of Corazon Aquino with the creation of the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) in
1990. With ₱2.3 billion in initial funding, the CDF 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. The CDF was later renamed the PDAF in 2000,
during the administration of Joseph Estrada.

Since 2008, every member of the House of Representatives usually receives an annual PDAF allocation of
₱70 million, while every senator receives an annual allocation of ₱200 million. The President also
benefits from a PDAF-like allocation, the President's Social Fund (PSF), worth around ₱1 billion. Contrary
to public belief, however, PDAF allocations are not actually released to members of Congress. Rather,
disbursements under the PDAF are coursed via implementing agencies of the Philippine government,
and are limited to "soft" and "hard" projects: the former largely referring to non-infrastructure projects
(such as scholarships and financial assistance programs, although small infrastructure projects are also
considered "soft" projects), and the latter referring to infrastructure projects which would be coursed via
the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Because presidential systems are often prone to political gridlock, the PDAF is often used as a means to
generate majority legislative support for the programs of the executive. Furthermore, because PDAF
allocations are released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), PDAF allocations are
often dependent on the relationship a legislator has with the sitting President. For example, during the
latter years of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, she was more generous in allocating PDAF
funds in the annual national budget in order to win the favor of legislators. PDAF allocation has gradually
increased over the years. For example, before Arroyo stepped down, the last PDAF allocated was for the
year 2010 at ₱10.86 billion, but when the Benigno Aquino III administration passed its first budget for
2011, the allocation more than doubled to ₱24.62 billion.

The PDAF has proven to be very unpopular, with numerous calls for its abolition. In 1996, the Philippine
Daily Inquirer published an exposé on systematic corruption in the CDF, with an anonymous
congressman (since identified as Romeo D. Candazo of Marikina) elaborating how legislators and other
government officials earned from overpricing projects in order to receive large commissions. Public
outrage over the misuse of the CDF was instrumental in the enactment of reforms which led to the
formation of the PDAF. The constitutionality of the PDAF has also been challenged in the Supreme Court.
In 1994, the constitutionality of the CDF was challenged by the Philippine Constitution Association,
arguing that the CDF's mechanisms encroach on the executive's power of implementing the budget
passed by the legislature, but the Court ruled the CDF constitutional under the legislative's "power of the
purse". This ruling was reaffirmed in 2001, when the PDAF was challenged again in the Supreme Court.
Legislators themselves are torn on the abolition of the PDAF, with some supporting total abolition,
others supporting increased regulation to minimize abuse of PDAF disbursements, and others opposed
to it.