EDITORIAL - The DAP comes closer to home

Former Cebu City congressman Tomas Osmeña has admitted having received money from the DAP, or Disbursement Acceleration Program. The money he was supposed to have received, depending on which newspaper reported it, ranged from a low of P34 million to a high of P126 million. Before the reports came out, Osmeña never gave any inkling he received any money from the DAP. Naturally he also never said where the money went.

But this is not about where the money went, even if, it will be reported later, he is still to ask the DBM for details about where he supposedly spent the money, whatever he means by that. This is about the image Osmeña has tried to maintain about himself – as one who is upright, transparent, and with a keen sense for detail. That may all be put into question now, especially since he claims he did not know where the money came from and that it was given because he asked for it.

The money he was reported to have received is not peanuts. Yet, for a man known to be particular about being seen as upright and transparent, and possessed with a keen sense for detail, it taxes anyone's credulity that he would not know where the money came from or that he would not even bother to try to find out. For him to merely say he suspects it is from DAP sound rather lame.

As to having asked for it – how can he ask for something he does not know about? That sounds very iffy in light of the fact that all pronouncements by both the Palace and the DBM had been the other way around – that they asked legislators for projects that needed funding. When the legislators complied and were give the funding, then it should follow they know what projects they are given funding for. So how can Osmeña say he still needs to ask DBM for details?

When stories start to clash and contradict, you begin to suspect someone is not telling the whole truth, that someone is maybe trying to hide something. Yet Osmeña insists the DAP is not immoral. Okay, granting it is not immoral, but how can he and the other DAP recepients explain the fact that nobody had ever come out to make a clean breast of it until stories started getting published in media. And even then, those who came out merely hemmed and hawed without really saying anything?

This is not to accuse Osmeña of anything. As he succinctly asked – what did people expect him to do, refuse the money? That, of course, is not the point. In fact, Osmeña may not owe anyone an explanation in light of the fact that so many others did the same as he did, which was to accept huge amounts of money from the DAP. What baffles the Cebuanos is why he waited until the DAP recepients were made known before admitting he was among such recepients.

Remember that he felt the DAP was not immoral. Remember too that he said he was proud of the program. Anybody who felt so exultant about being able to help Cebuanos ought to climb the highest mountain and proclaim such ability to do so. That, after all, is the nature of politics. Without exception, politicians take credit for anything they are supposed to do as a matter of course. By staying silent, Osmeña was not being himself. Why could that be?