Joker Arroyo wants SC to look into how Abad distributed DAP ‘with complete abandon’

Former Senator Joker Arroyo on Friday asked the Supreme Court to look into how Budget Secretary Florencio Abad distributed funds from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) “with complete abandon.”

“The Supreme Court perhaps would do well to take judicial notice into the humungous amounts involved to see how the Budget Secretary distributed amounts with complete abadon,” Arroyo said in a press statement.

“We are talking of an estimated of P150 billion of DAP. Nobody knows the exact figure because DBM (Department of Budget and Management) has not been forthcoming,” he added.

He said the DAP, declared partially unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, is the anti-thesis of Daang Matuwid, which is the battlecry of the Aquino administration.

“The President cannot keep on waving that banner when Mr. Abad keeps on dragging it down,” said Arroyo, who served as executive secretary of Aquino's mother, the late President Corazon Aquino.

Abad's list

Arroyo noted that Abad included him on the list of senators who endorsed DAP when, in fact, he never asked for such funding.

“I have never ever asked nor received from Sec. Abad or DBM P47 million from DAP,” he said.

He, however, admitted that he proposed to Congress that for 2013, P30 million be allotted for the construction of three school buildings in three high schools and P17 million for indigent patients to be entrusted to the Philippine General Hospital, Lung Center, Kidney Center, Heart Center, and the Bicol General Hospital.

Arroyo said his proposal was disapproved.

“I accepted their refusal in good grace as the judgment of my peers in light of my being an independent,” he said.

But Abad allocated P47 million fund for the projects, which was sourced from DAP.

"Evil geniusness"

Arroyo said that in a letter sent to him by Abad, the budget chief justified his initiative to allocate fund for the projects of the senator because “they were in line with the Aquino administration’s development agenda, particularly with respect to providing quality education and health care services to disadvantaged Filipinos.”

“Abad was being disingenuous. Congress disapproved my proposal for P47 million funding. The budget secretary in effect overruled the judgment of Congress, and appropriated P47 million to me from DAP,” he said.

The former senator said Abad does not have the authority to allocate, at his discretion, funds for certain projects and assign its disbursements to legislators, local government units, and other agencies.

“This is the core issue of DAP. Was Mr. Abad’s initiative borne out of altruism? No, it's evil geniusness. I voted to acquit Chief Justice [Renato] Corona in the impeachment trial. To show that the administration is impartial, Mr. Abad bestowed upon me, for appearances, P47 million of DAP funds to squander even if it did not even pass thru me,” he said.

The DAP came into public consciousness after Sen. Jinggoy Estrada bared in a privilege speech in September last year that senators who voted for Corona's conviction received an additional P50 million each on top of their regular pork barrel.

Malacañang has denied that the additional funds were a form of bribe connected to Corona's ouster. —Amita O. Legaspi/KBK, GMA News