'A bad secretary' faces plunder rap

MANILA, Philippines — A group led by Kabataan party-list on Tuesday filed a plunder complaint against Budget and Management Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad before the Office of the Ombudsman.

"A bad secretary must go to jail," Kabataan Partylist and 11 other organizations said in a statement issued after the filing of the complaint.

In a 16-page complaint, the petitioners said that Abad "systematically misappropriated, converted, misused, and malversed public funds through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP)."

They filed against Abad charges for alleged violations of Republic Act 7080 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials, Employees and the Revised Penal Code.

They argued that "all elements of plunder exist in the instant case."

The controversial DAP was struck down by the Supreme Court on July 1 for unconstitutionality as it translates appropriations to government savings with discretionary purposes.

President Aquino and Abad have been under fire for the program, which they said was created to boost government spending and aid the economy.

The petitioners argued that the DAP's illegality points to what they call a systematic misuse of government funds.

The Supreme Court excluded Abad and other proponents of the erring program from the "doctrine of operative fact" which may protect them from being held accountable despite claims of "good faith" in the DAP's implementation.

"By leaving the 'authors, proponents, and implementors' of the DAP open for investigation for their criminal, civil, and administrative liabilities, the justices of the Supreme Court are in fact telling the Filipino people that the Aquino administration, especially DBM Secretary Abad, should be held liable," Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said.

The petitioners also cited in the complaint the testimony of pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim Napoles that Abad was her mentor.

Ridon, meanwhile, slammed Aquino for defending Abad and appealed to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to hasten the investigation on the supposed DAP misuse.

"The very fact that Aquino is coddling a criminal like Abad only proves that the two of them have connived to execute this multibillion monstrosity known as DAP," Ridon said.

Abad had admitted having allowed the disbursement of P1.1 billion under the DAP to senators whose amount requests for supposed projects ranged from P50 million to P100 million in 2012 and 2013.