SC: Palace not off the hook

Ombudsman launches DAP probe

MANILA, Philippines - The executive branch is not off the hook and can be held liable for the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), key portions of which have been declared unconstitutional.

This is according to the Supreme Court (SC)’s decision, the full text of which was made available to the public only last night.

The Office of the Ombudsman, for its part, has launched a probe to determine whether a crime or offense has been committed in connection with the DAP.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales yesterday created a panel of investigators to determine the possible culpability of certain public officials.

“In light of the Supreme Court’s decision on the DAP case, we are initiating an investigation into the matter,” Morales said in a statement.

She cited Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Act of 1989, which states that the anti-graft body may initiate investigation motu propio (on its own) or even without a complaint, on “any act or omission of any public officer or employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient.”

The law also grants the ombudsman the power to investigate any serious misconduct in office committed by impeachable officers, but only for the purpose of filing a verified complaint for impeachment, if warranted.

Accountability demanded

For anti-DAP petitioners, the issue on DAP does not end with the SC declaring it unconstitutional.

After winning the case in the high court, the petitioners want their crusade against the executive department’s “stimulus” funds to end with officials behind DAP held liable.

They believe the SC ruling could be used to establish the culpability of Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, who issued National Budget Circular No. 541, and even of President Aquino.

Former Manila councilor Greco Belgica, one of the nine individuals and groups that filed the petitions, said while the SC ruling only declared acts under DAP and related issuances unconstitutional, it entails finding of accountability that should warrant investigation by concerned agencies like the Commission on Audit and the Ombudsman.

“The dispositive portion of the decision identified the illegal acts so that means the perpetrators can be held accountable,” Belgica said, adding the funds spent through DAP should be returned to government coffers.

Belgica said it’s time for the government to make things right, admit fault, release documents and investigation report, return what was stolen and hold criminals accountable.

Another petitioner in the case, former national treasurer Leonor Briones, agreed with Belgica that the next step is for the public to demand accountability over the voided DAP.

Briones recalled an earlier statement of Abad that DAP was “crafted under the instructions of the President.”

“Perhaps the most damning thing about DAP is that those involved had legal knowledge. They knew what they were doing,” Briones said.

UP law professor Harry Roque Jr., who represented Belgica in this case, said the executive department could not hide behind the cloak of “good faith” in evading culpability in the illegal DAP.

Roque likened the DAP to “unmitigated raid of the government’s coffers during the Marcos regime under Presidential Decree No. 1177 that allowed Marcos to plunder the government in billions of dollars.”

“Aside from criminal prosecution for technical malversation, heads must roll for the illegal expenditures,” he said in a statement.

The militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, also a petitioner in the case, vowed to pursue all means to hold Aquino and Abad liable for the DAP.

 Lawyer Oliver Lozano said he will today file an impeachment complaint before the House of Representative and the ombudsman against President Aquino for culpable violation of Constitution following the SC ruling in declaring the DAP illegal.

“I am filing the impeachment through party-list group who assured endorsement of the complaint,” he said.

 Lozano said he would also file a complaint with ombudsman calling for an investigation of the impeachable act of the President, as well public officials who benefited from the DAP.

“Pursuant to the Ombudsman Act, the ombudsman should investigate this alleged violation of the Constitution that is prejudicial to government employees in particular and the people in general,” Lozano said.

 Lozano accused Aquino of culpable violation of the Constitution and failure of leadership, which he said would lead the country to chaos and anarchy.

 Lozano said that among the grounds of his complaint are selective prosecution of pork barrel suspects, inequality in treatment of suspects, skyrocketing prices, breakdown of law and order, political vendetta, alleged bribery in the impeachment of former chief justice Renato Corona.

“When he assumed office, the President took his oath to uphold the Constitution,” he said.

 Lozano warned any attempt to kill the impeachment may lead people to bring their protest to the streets.

 Lozano said it is possible that others may file a similar complaint just like what happened in the past when he filed an impeachment complaint against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo where the opposition amended his complaint to supersede the original complaint.

Lozano said he would welcome any move to preempt his complaint provided that it will be referred to the House committee on justice to determine if it is sufficient in form and substance.

Lozano conceded impeachment is a numbers game and considering the allies of Aquino in the House, it will die a natural death at the committee level.

 He stressed he has nothing personal against Aquino and the impeachment complaint was meant as a wake-up call for the President to reassess his advisers responsible for the administration’s legal problems.

Fire Abad

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco wanted Aquino to fire Abad to show that “yellow is not above the law.”

Tiangco, secretary-general of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, said Aquino should also file malversation charges against Abad to show that the country’s justice system is not “double standard.”

Now that the SC declared DAP unconstitutional, Tiangco said the President should give Abad his walking papers and order concerned agencies to file malversation, administrative and criminal cases against the budget chief.

He said Aquino should refrain from saving Abad’s neck and show the people that even the closest allies of the President are not above the law.

The lawmaker said it is Abad who is pushing Aquino to commit political suicide by letting the President defend the blunders made by his Cabinet and political lieutenants.

“The President even went further by exonerating Abad from any accountability in the disbursements from 2011 to 2013 amounting to P157 billion,” he said.

Tiangco said alleged pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles’ former employee, Merlina Suñas, has kept records that would show that Abad had long been an accomplice in both the Priority Development Assistance Fund and DAP schemes.

He said Abad invented the DAP to accelerate the Liberal Party’s political agenda and establish their control over other agencies of government and LGUs.

He said the defenders of DAP are confusing the public by highlighting the supposed benefits of the disbursement program.

“What are the benefits of the people from DAP when Malacañang released billions of pesos to convict chief justice Renato Corona? What are the benefits that go to the people for the purchase of P135-million spy gadgets for NICA?” Tiangco asked.

Proof?

Meanwhile, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said official documents showed that Aquino could not escape accountability and pin the blame on Abad.

“The Supreme Court affirmed our position that DAP is a form of pork barrel used to divert public funds to highly questionable projects, including the grant of billions to senator judges in the impeachment of former chief justice Renato Corona,” Colmenares said.

Colmenares’ office released to journalists a copy of Abad’s memo to Aquino dated June 25, 2012 asking for “omnibus authority” to consolidate savings and unused funds and realign them for other projects.

The memo also showed Abad was asking authority “to withdraw and pool available and unobligated balances of agencies with low levels of obligations as of June 30, 2012, both for continuing and current allotments.”

Abad identified at least 13 projects in his memo that needed funding at the time, including completion of all arterial and secondary roads in Tarlac, “capability requirement” for the operations of the Coast Guard in the disputed West Philippine Sea, the expanded government internship program and other local projects.

Aquino approved the request and in less than a month, Abad issued National Budget Circular No. 541, justifying DAP.

“We have proof. Aquino is accountable for DAP because he signed and approved the release of billions of pesos from 2011-13,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said.– With Edu Punay, Perseus Echeminada, Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Evelyn Macairan