MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday refused to hit back at former senator Joker Arroyo who described President Benigno Aquino III as an "evil genius" for using the Administrative Code of 1987 as a legal basis for the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
"With all due respect to Senator Arroyo, we do not wish to dignify comments from Senator Arroyo," Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at televised press briefing.
Arroyo earlier criticized Aquino for using the administrative code signed by his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, in justifying the DAP.
Read: Joker calls Noy 'evil genius'
He claimed that the elder Aquino did not use the administrative code because "she knew fully well" that her predecessor, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, was the one who initiated the decree that she signed.
Arroyo was the executive security during the elder Aquino's term.
"Cory signed it in 1987 and yet up to the end of her term in 1992, she never used it. The question now lies, why PNoy used it 25 years after it was signed?" he said.
The former senator noted how Marcos squandered public funds using the administrative code. He then likened Aquino to the former dictator regarding the manner of disbursing government money.
No factionalism
Malacañang also denied on Monday that factionalism was at work in the creation and implementation of the DAP.
Lacierda said he saw no factionalism in one meeting where one particular DAP project was discussed.
"There was no factionalism there. That is inaccurate to say that there was factionalism involved. That's not true," Lacierda said.
He was reacting to a report by the STAR, which cited an anonymous source, that the DAP was created "at the height of the issue of factionalism" in the Aquino administration.
The source noted, the report said, that it is also an open secret that Aquino allows such factionalism to exist if only to ensure that officials don't conspire and keep tabs on each other.
Read: Palace factionalism at work in DAP
The DAP was introduced in 2011 as a stimulus fund scheme that realigns government savings from stalled projects to other programs to supposedly help boost the economy.
The Palace insists that the DAP has helped the country even if its key provisions were were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last week.
"[M]ay I just remind and also impress upon the countrymen that the fact the beneficial effects of DAP were even recognized over and over and over again in the Supreme Court decision," Lacierda said.