Joker, Ping hit Palace spokespersons over DAP mess

MANILA, Philippines - Two former senators on Tuesday slammed the Malacañang spokespersons for dragging President Benigno Aquino III into the pork barrel crisis created by the alleged illegal use of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that reached P127-billion in 2011 and 2012.

The word war between Sen. Joker Arroyo and the Palace worsened after Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda scored Arroyo last Monday for not raising a howl about the corruption during the past administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Part of the problem in Malacañang is the indolence of their spokespersons. They play things by ear and pass it off as facts,”  Arroyo said. “Staff indolence, that’s why the President gets into trouble for missteps that are not his."

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who maintained he did not avail of DAP funds during his term, also lashed at the people around President Aquino for not insulating the president from the controversy.

Prior to the verbal exchange, Arroyo had taken several digs against the Palace recently including what he described as “budget dictatorship” over the use of DAP. At one point, the senator also lambasted the "student council" working at Malacañang.

In a press statement, Arroyo pointed to Senate records that would clearly show that he dealt with major issues during the administration of President Arroyo such as the multi-million fertilizer fund scam.

“Take their accusation that I didn’t react to irregularities that took place in the past administration, citing for instance the Fertilizer scam and the ZTE scandal,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo noted that the fertilizer scam was investigated in the 13th Congress by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Food as the lead committee and himself as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee as the secondary committee.

“Thus, we co-authored the 41-page Committee Report No. 54 strongly condemning the project and recommending the prosecution of the offenders from top to bottom,” Arroyo said.

On the ZTE investigation, Arroyo said he filed a separate opinion with the opening declaration that “the broadband project, subject of the investigation, was doomed to fail at its inception.”

As he postulated, after the elections and with the election of President Aquino, Sen. Arroyo said the ZTE case found its way to the Office of the Ombudsman and the prosecution of the offenders.

The senator said that the least the Palace spokesmen could have done was to coordinate with the Presidential Legislative Liason Office (PLLO) right at the Senate to determine his efforts in exposing corruption during the past administration.

“They can ask there for the records, but they don’t and thereby err in their statements,” Sen. Arroyo said.

In contradicting Lacierda, Arroyo noted that Senate records would bear him out since he appeared and argued the position of the Senate against executive order 646 before the Supreme Court against President GMA and won them.

Arroyo said he also rejected the Venable contract which would use American money to help amend the Constitution and the People’s Initiative to do the same.

“I fought EO 464 on executive privilege and the PCGG; Proclamation 1017 which curtailed freedom of assembly and of the press,” the senator added.

When he was chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, Arroyo reported out and condemned the anomalous deals and contracts involving PIATCO, the tax credit scandal, NAPOCOR and Masinloc biddings, and others.

“I voted no against the 2011 and 2012 Budgets and delivered a turno en contra on the 2013 Budget because of the hefty lump  sum appropriations and PDAF,” Arroyo added.

“All these records are accessible in the Senate records.  You do not need an FOI for that,” he said, referring toe Freedom of Information bill which remained pending in Congress.

Abad should explain DAP

Lacson also criticized the Palace spokespersons for dragging the President into the pork barrel fund mess when Budget Secretary Butch Abad failed miserably in addressing the DAP controversy.

In a press briefing at the Senate, Lacson expressed concern why the President’s minions had to defend Abad over the DAP when the presidency should have been insulated from the controversy.

Abad should be explaining the issue, not the President, the former police chief said.

“Normally or the usual practice is the President is being insolated in crisis.  But the problem I see now is, instead of the President being insolated from crisis, they push the President to explain or solve our crisis” Lacson said.

The moment I saw Secretary Lacierda and Secretary Carandang explaning on behalf of Sec. Abad, I already saw a problem. Why is it that the President’s spokespersons are explaining for the DBM when it is the other way around?” Lacson said.

“Nabibilad ang Pangulo. Siya ang naiipit,” Lacson said.  “As I say, in all countries in the world, the chief executive is insolated from crisis…Now, because he is very popular, the President is being pushed to answer this."