5 senators under probe for DAP

MANILA, Philippines — Five senators suspected of misuse of the funds from the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program are under investigation for a possible case buildup, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed Monday.

De Lima told reporters that agents of the National Bureau of Investigation are conducting a probe of the DAP's supposed link with detained businesswoman and plunder respondent Janet Lim Napoles.

Napoles, allegedly the mastermind of the pork barrel scam, was recently accused by whistleblower Benhur Luy of channeling lawmakers' DAP funds through her dummy non-government organizations.

Luy's lawyer, Raji Mendoza, said that almost P500 million under the program went to Napoles.

"Willing si Luy mag-execute ng affidavit tungkol diyan patungkol diyan sa pondo. Makukumpleto po n'ya ung kwento paano pumasok ung pondo, paano lumabas," Mendoza told dzMM over the weekend.

The allegations came amid the Supreme Court's ruling declaring some acts and practices under the Aquino administration's DAP as unconstitutional, such as in transforming unspent allocations to government savings with discretionary use.

Related: Revisiting DAP: 3 senators got biggest from P1.1-B

Budget Sec. Florencio "Butch" Abad, who has been under fire for the formulation of DAP, said that P1.1 billion from the public coffers were given to senators and their projects in 2012 and 2013.

Abad and Aquino were accused of giving DAP as an incentive to senator-judges for the trial and ouster of Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012. - reports from Edu Punay