New DOJ probe on ‘pork,’ DAP backed

MANILA, Philippines -  Two senators yesterday expressed their support for the move of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a fresh investigation into the alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

In separate statements, Senators Francis Escudero and Sherwin Gatchalian were referring to the move of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to form a task force to reopen the case and correct the “miscarriage of justice” in the probe conducted by the Aquino administration.

“After all of these years, the terms PDAF and DAP are still synonymous with corruption and abuse of power,” Gatchalian lamented.

“The Filipino people continue to demand that the people responsible for these scams be held accountable for their sins against the nation. Unfortunately, these demands were largely ignored by the previous administration,” he said.

The new investigation, Gatchalian added, should be a perfect opportunity for the embattled justice chief to prove his critics wrong and deliver the justice the people continue to clamor for.

He said he expects the DOJ to conduct a thorough, objective and fearless investigation “which will hold these plunderers responsible for their crimes, no matter what their political affiliation may be.”

Escudero, who filed the resolution calling for the PDAF probe in the previous Congress, said the pork barrel scam investigated by the previous DOJ leadership involving detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles covered only some P6 billion, when the Commission on Audit estimated the misused pork funds in the previous Congresses at P12 billion.

He stressed that the DOJ has “still so much to do” with respect to the pork barrel scam.

“You still have a big chunk of pork barrel funds that were coursed through various (non-government organizations) and various other schemes that were not even taken up by the Senate, (Commission on Audit)… the ombudsman nor the Sandiganbayan,” Escudero said.