Groups file graft raps vs Noy, Abad over DAP

MANILA, Philippines - Various groups filed charges against former president Benigno Aquino III and former budget secretary Florencio Abad before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday over the implementation of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), parts of which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2014.

The groups led by Bayan Muna, Gabriela and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption accused Aquino and Abad of graft, technical malversation of public funds and usurpation of legislative powers in the implementation of the DAP.

Another official of the Aquino administration, former press secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., was accused of plunder involving P191 million by a group of employees of state owned corporations.

The Asian Productivity Employees Association (APEA), the labor union of Apo Production Unit Inc. (APO) led by its president Conrado Molina, filed the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday accusing Coloma and other officials of hiring a specialist to siphon off funds from the agency’s revenues for a period of five years ending Dec. 31, 2015.

The APO Board of Trustees and officers denied the charge and said they would sue their accusers for libel.

“All our actions have been aboveboard and we have nothing to hide,” they said in a statement.

Aquino, through his lawyer Abigail Valte, said they could not comment on the charges since they have yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

“We cannot comment on its contents at the present time. However, this action from Bayan is neither surprising nor unexpected. As soon as (Aquino) stepped down, they mobilized to rally at his Times Street home, unwilling to extend to him a peaceful homecoming,” said Valte, who served as deputy presidential spokesperson of the former president.

The ombudsman cleared Aquino of any liability over the DAP in September 2015, saying the accusations do not amount to an impeachable offense.

Valte noted Aquino was again named a respondent on the same issue since he no longer enjoys immunity from suit.

She said the complaint “is clearly part of their continuing harassment of a president who refused to be cowed by their chest-beating during his entire term.”

Abad, for his part, also said he has to read the complaint before making a statement.

“But I am certain we will soon get a notice from the ombudsman to respond to the complaint. That will be the more opportune time to make a statement,” Abad said in a text message.

On June 15, 15 days before Aquino ended his six-year term of office, Abad said in a television interview that he and Aquino were prepared to face any case arising from DAP.

“We have been prepared. We have looked at this issue down to its tiniest details and as we have been doing in the past three years, we have been explaining to the public,” Abad said.

“These past few days and weeks, DAP has been discussed in the context of anti-corruption but insofar as me and President Aquino are concerned, this has never been an issue… There’s never been allegations that personal gain was involved, fraud was involved. It’s just that there are constitutional and technical issues that were involved,” he said.

He said even the Supreme Court acknowledged that DAP benefitted the country.

The high tribunal struck down four practices under the economic stimulus program, including cross-border fund transfers (from the executive to the legislative branch or judiciary), impounding of appropriations and declaration of savings before the end of the year.

Presidential ‘pork’

The complaint stemmed from the roles played by Aquino and Abad in the implementation of the DAP that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in July 2014 and in February 2015 after the ruling was appealed.

The latest complaint alleged Aquino and Abad misused some P144.4 billion of the P237.5 billion in “forced savings” sourced from various government agencies to finance projects and programs from 2011 to 2013 alone.

“The DAP was nothing more than presidential pork taken from forced savings then realigned for pet projects of the President. It was not a stimulus program, as many of the projects approved by Aquino had nothing to do with stimulating the economy,” Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said.

Zarate claimed the DAP was used to entice lawmakers into impeaching former chief justice Renato Corona.

“As Respondent Abad admitted, the bulk or around 61.5 percent of the total ‘savings’ declared under the DAP were funds for Personnel Services. This means that funds meant for new plantilla positions in government; salaries, benefits and bonuses; retirement pension and others were illegally diverted to the PAPs (programs, activities and projects) that he and Respondent Aquino identified and approved,” the 26-page charge sheet filed by the complainants read.

“In addition, damage to the public service proceeds from the mere fact of violation of separation of powers and the unlawful diminution of funds for the PAPs declared by Congress as necessary for public service and national development. There is therefore enough ground to find damage resulting to the public service, which will warrant the higher fine of 50 percent to 100 percent of the funds subjected to technical malversation.”

The complainants claimed Aquino already knew beforehand that his acts of tinkering with the national budget and his “fiscal dictatorship” are in violation of the Constitution and a grave sin to the principles of separation of powers, transparency and good governance.

“At the very least, Respondents Aquino and Abad, who had been top government officials for decades already at the time that they authored and implemented the DAP, cannot feign ignorance of the illegality of their acts,” they said.

“This complaint is not a debate about the Respondents’ statesmanship and brinkmanship in their administration of the peoples’ money as accountable and responsible officers. It is about the pure and simple criminal diversion of public funds that have already been appropriated, to projects or programs that did not pass Congress’ power over the purse, which in the process caused undue hardships and prejudice to the Filipino civil servants and the Filipino people as a whole,” the complaint stressed.

The Office of the Ombudsman is conducting preliminary investigation proceedings against Abad and Undersecretary Mario Relampagos for technical malversation of public funds but only for their roles in the utilization of DAP funds amounting to P31.9 billion from 2011 to 2012.

Ombudsman investigators said both authorized the DAP, sourced from pooled savings, as “a plan to boost disbursements” and “to jumpstart the implementation” of the government’s expenditure program.

However, the investigators said documents showed irregularities in the cross border DAP transfer transactions to the Commission on Audit (COA) and the House of Representatives. – With Aurea Calica, Jess Diaz, Rhodina Villanueva