P-Noy faces raps over DAP, PDAF

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino was accused yesterday before the Office of the Ombudsman of illegal use of public funds through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad were named co-respondents.

During the last six years, the administration spent P377 billion in lump sum appropriations despite Supreme Court decisions declaring them as unconstitutional, presidential aspirant Augusto Syjuco Jr. said in the criminal complaint.

The administration spent PDAF amounting to P220 billion and DAP totaling P157 billion, according to the former lawmaker and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director-general.

“Despite all of Aquino’s lies and deceptions, many of which are no different from insanity pleas, the Commission on Audit (COA) has come to its senses in reporting and concluding that the corruption of pork barrel funds under the Aquino administration is ‘horrible’,” read the complaint.

Recently, the Commission on Audit (COA) set off a series of annual audit reports on government agencies on how PDAF was spent during the first half of the administration, Syjuco said.

“Indeed the report presented a scandalous series of these horrible pictures,” he said.

“In the said report, it was revealed that about a dozen public agencies, directly under the authority of the President, served as conduits for pork, DAP and such other lump-sum funds from 2011 to 2013 in committing continuous abuses and misuses of pork,” he said.

“In addition, these COA agency reports noted that despite explicit advisory from the Supreme Court to stop these disbursements of PDAF by September 2013, still multibillion pesos of pork monies were released, while fund balances for projects not yet covered by Notices of Cash Allocation (NCA) were not reverted to the Treasury by a number of pork-conduit agencies and legislators.” 

The public was misled to believe that Aquino’s daang matuwid means the prudent use of state funds for projects, Syjuco said.

“With the final Supreme Court decision identifying the ‘backroom conspirators’ of DAP as the ones liable, appropriate cases should have been filed long ago with the proper courts,” read the complaint.

“Though much overdue, let these be filed now in accordance with the precepts of law. 

“Since BS Aquino, and he alone, directed the use of the PDAF and DAP, it can be well said BS Aquino used these funds as his own personal treasury. Undeniably, one fact is so obviously certain. Whether he pleads insanity or otherwise – BS Aquino’s hands are tainted with pork barrel money.”