DBM: Malampaya plunder rap product of 'hyperactive imagination'

'Malampaya fund anomalies under GMA'

MANILA, Philippines  - The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) slammed the filing of plunder complaint against President Benigno Aquino III and Secretary Florencio Abad over the alleged misuse of Malampaya Funds.

The budget department said that the militant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas' (KMP) filing of the plunder complaint is a desperate attempt to implicate the Aquino administration to a wrongdoing.

"The charges that the KMP have yet again leveled against President Aquino and Secretary Abad can only be the product of either shoddy research or a hyperactive imagination," the agency said in a statement late Wednesday.

The DBM said that the perceived anomalies occurred in 2009 under the watch of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when the release of P900-million funds was done supposedly to assist communities in the wake of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

"The Malampaya Fund releases in question were actually made in 2009, under the administration of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It would be another year before President Aquino would assume leadership of the country, and another year before Secretary Abad would helm the budget department," the DBM said.

In its 16-page plunder complaint, the KMP blamed the alleged P125 million funds misuse to Aquino for allegedly backing the DBM in releasing funds to the Department of Agrarian Reform for fraudulent non-government organizations linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

Read: Aquino, Abad face plunder raps over Malampaya

The group said the Aquino government's disbursement of funds to agricultural projects instead of energy-related works is illegal.

"The President and respondent public officials of the DBM ... should know and should have known that the Malampaya Funds were earmarked for energy development or energy-related projects," the complaint said.

Abad, meanwhile, denied the allegations and said that Malampaya funds released during Aquino's term have been directed to energy projects alone.

"Under this Administration, the DBM has helped ensure that Malampaya Funds are used exactly for their mandated purpose ... We suggest that the KMP first get the facts straight before filing other poorly supported complaints in the Office of the Ombudsman," Abad said.