MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) was asked yesterday to investigate the possible criminal liabilities of former president Benigno Aquino III and two other former officials over alleged anomalies in the multibillion-peso Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) during his term.
A coalition of anti-pork barrel groups made the call after submitting to the DOJ pieces of evidence allegedly showing misuse of the DAP funds, which the Supreme Court had voided and declared unconstitutional.
The groups led by former Manila councilor Greco Belgica, one of the petitioners in the pork barrel cases in the high court, submitted to the office of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II records of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the DAP expenditures during the previous administration.
Belgica asked the DOJ to conduct a fact-finding investigation on the submitted records and pursue charges of malversation of public funds with aggravating circumstances against Aquino, former DBM secretary Florencio Abad and former DBM undersecretary Mario Relampagos.
The documents also showed that P6.5 billion from the P144-billion DAP funds of the previous administration were allocated to various local projects that were not itemized in the budget, he said.
He also cited the reported admission of detained former senator Jinggoy Estrada that they were given DAP funds for the ouster of the late chief justice Renato Corona in impeachment trial in 2011.
The DOJ has created a team led by Undersecretary Antonio Kho Jr. to conduct the fact-finding probe.
Trillanes charged
Belgica also submitted records purportedly showing that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV received a total of P245 million in DAP funds in three tranches during the previous administration.
Trillanes reportedly donated P10 million from his DAP funds to a non-government organization that turned out to be engaged in donating funds, not receiving them.
“He had so many ghost projects that we discovered,” Belgica said