MANILA, Philippines - That’s incredible.
This is how Budget Secretary Florencio Abad described the latest plunder case filed against him before the Office of the Ombudsman for his involvement in the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
“That is absolutely without any basis. It’s a figment of their imagination. Incredible! I do not think they are even serious at all about filing that complaint,” Abad told reporters who sought his comment.
Bonifacio Alentajan, former president of the Philippine Constitution Association, lodged the non-bailable offense and asked Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to suspend Abad preventively, pending investigation of the complaint.
Alentajan accused Abad of using the DAP to bribe senators into voting for the impeachment of former Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona.
Alentajan based his plunder, graft and malversation of public funds complaint on the exposé of detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada that 19 senators, including himself, were given P50 million each to vote in favor of Corona’s impeachment.
In July 2014, the SC declared several parts of DAP, a tool supposedly used to accelerate government spending and boost economic development, as unconstitutional.
Alentajan accused Abad of illegally transferring public funds duly appropriated to one government agency to another without legislative authority as provided for in the 1987 Constitution.
He said it was also unlawful for Abad to transfer DAP funds outside the executive department, which the SC said was among the unconstitutional provisions of the scheme.