Joker’s exposé

Former Senator Joker Arroyo said on ANC TV  that the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is illegal because there is no law creating it.

Arroyo denied that he asked for P47 million to be given to schools in the Bicol area and to hospitals in Metro Manila and one in Bicol.

DBM Secretary Butch Abad explained that the P50 million per senator was given to ramp up public spending and to accelerate the expenditures of public funds.

Certainly, P1 billion is a drop in the bucket and will not accelerate the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) spending, which has a budget of P200 billion for infrastructure. The P165-billion Malampaya fund could have been used to increase spending, which they did.

The P50M per senator, including the P100M for Senator Frank Drilon and the P99M for Senator Chiz Escudero were released just a few months after  the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The Aquino administration has been known to use the PDAF to get the approval of a proposal in Congress. The PDAF was used to get the resolution for the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez approved. It was used to get 188 congressmen to sign the resolution impeaching Chief Justice Corona within 24 hours.

It was used to pass the national budget without cuts for 3 years. It was used to pass the conditional cash transfer (CCT) appropriations intact. It is believed that it was also used to get the RH Bill passed.

This pattern supports the opinion that the P50 million DAP was indeed a reward or a bonus to senators who voted to convict Corona. It is significant that Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who voted to acquit CJ Corona were not given P50 million.

Joker also revealed that 11 senators received P500 million in PDAF releases in April 2012 during the impeachment trial.

DBM Secretary Butch Abad admitted that congressmen got an extra P10 million each after passing the Corona impeachment resolution. Senator JV Ejercito and Rep. Neri Colmenares admitted that they accepted P10 million because they were threatened  by the House leaders of non-release of their total PDAF.

COA to audit DAP

In response to a letter of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the Commission on Audit (COA) has started an investigation and has begun auditing the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) created by the DBM Circular.

Again, the Senate can solve the problem by reducing the appropriations for the offices, where billions in savings were found to have been transferred to DAP. It should also remove the appropriations  for National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR) and the Zamboanga Rubber Estate Corp. (ZREC), which Secretary Proceso Alcala has decided to abolish.

Up to now, there has been no accounting of the P12-B farm-to-market road projects of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Drilon yields

Senate President Franklin Drilon has yielded to some senators to call for a Senate vote on the issue of a subpoena for Janet Napoles to testify before the Blue Ribbon Committee.

We predict a majority will vote in favor of issuing the subpoena. It is predictable too that Janet Napoles will raise her right against self-incrimination. At that point, the threat of contempt will be raised by Senator T.G. Guingona.

If Drilon is outvoted, he is under obligation to resign his post as called for by actor Robin Padilla.

Diokno’s interview

Erap’s former DBM secretary Benjamin Diokno guested at Headstart with Karen Davila.

He expressed the view that this Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is unconstitutional because it does not come from savings and it was also used to fund new programs which are non-existent items.

Diokno said the DBM creating DAP and transferring the P72 billion to it is therefore unconstitutional. He  it should be challenged before the Supreme Court.

He gave the opinion that President Aquino has committed a culpable violation of the Constitution. Constitutional expert, Fr. Joaquin  Bernas agreed with Diokno’s analysis.

Both were in complete agreement that the President can realign savings only to augment existing items in the budget. The DBM listing showed that releases to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), and the province of Quezon among others did not augment any existing items in the budget.

Former National Treasurer Leonor Briones also expressed the view that DAP is illegal.

Gross falsification

The truth about crime has come out. The Philippine National Police (PNP) have been underreporting it by as much as 60% in Metro Manila.

Nine senior PNP officers of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) were accused by the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) of underreporting crimes. The Cubao police station had the largest discrepancy at 62.5%, reporting only 429  cases out of 1,143 gathered by DIDM. Mandaluyong was the 2nd largest   at 61.2 percent; Pasay at 56.1%; MPD Station 4 at 52.3%; San Juan at 44.4%; MPD Station 9 at 41.9% and Parañaque at 41.8%.

We’ve been writing about the crime wave in this column, but PNP annually reported a decrease in crime incidence instead of increase.

Quezon City, Manila, Mandaluyong, and Pasay have the highest crime rate. It is sad to see that so many PNP officers are guilty of falsification. Mayors should now double check their figures and collate the crime  rate from barangays.

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TIDBITS: Rep. Enrique “Tet” Garcia of Bataan expressed fear that his province will pay dearly in terms of severe flooding and lost lives if Almacan River and other waterways are not dredged. Like Mayor Jay Khonghun of Subic, Rep. Garcia proposed that private dredging companies should be hired to do the job.

Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco Salazar used to be a Carmelite Novice. She was also a teacher at the Ateneo De Zamboanga.

Happy Birthday greetings to Tonggay Luciano and Ester Chung. Best wishes to readers Jose Chung, Peter Cia, and George Yang.