ShareThisBut solons, groups disappointed with President’s stance
MANILA (PilipinasNews) — President Benigno Aquino III has vowed anew he will go after those who misused the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) totalling over P10 billion alone with those linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.
Aquino addressed the nation in a televised speech Wednesday evening to explain the issues on the pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), among others. The speech was apparently made to counter findings in a Malacanang survey that his popularity has gone down by 35 percent.
“If you think you can get away with stealing, you are underestimating me and the Filipino people,” Aquino stressed in a pointed message to those trying to equate the pork barrel scam with his administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program.
Charged with the plunder of pork, Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada had accused Aquino of rewarding senators with cash of P50 million to P100 million each from the DAP after the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Aquino said:”Kung sa tingin ninyo, titigil ako sa pag-usig; kung sa tingin ninyo, maililihis ninyo ang atensyon ng publiko; kung sa tingin ninyo, makakatakas kayo sa pagnanakaw; nagkakamali kayo ng tantya sa akin, at sa taumbayang Pilipino.”
Aquino said some of those implicated in the “pork barrel” scam have tried to divert the public’s attention away by smearing the use of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, former Senate President Protempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Napoles and more than 30 others have been charged with plunder, graft and corruption and malversation of funds before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the P10 billion pork barrel scam.
The President warned that his critics would fail at these attempts to smear his administration.
Militant lawmakers and anti-pork barrel groups, however, were not impressed with the President’s speech defending his administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), with one of them even saying that the President seemed to have “lost touch with reality” while the President’s allies defended his stance.
“Aquino has lost touch with reality and his speech completely misses the point,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, an ally of the President during the impeachment of then Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Puno. “The people are angry with the corruption and patronage politics that goes with pork and the DAP.”
Colmenares said Aquino treads dangerous ground in his insistence that DAP is constitutional and legitimate.
“Realigning appropriations arbitrarily is technical malversation at least and many public officials have gone to prison for spending funds to items other than those appropriated by law,” he said as he renewed his call for Aquino to delete all lump sum provisions in the proposed National Budget for 2014.
“Aquino’s speech on primetime was nothing but a desperate defense of DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Fund) and the presidential lump sum discretionary spending or pork. He says the issue is corruption, yet he conveniently omits the fact that DAP also went to Napoles’s non-government organizations and corrupt politicians,” said Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the Bagong Alyasang Makabayan (Bayan), said.
“He draws a distinction between DAP and Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), but omits the fact that both were abused and ended in corruption,” Reyes added.
The President “completely misses the point,” added Colmenares.
“The people are angry with the corruption and patronage politics that goes with pork and the DAP. Worse, realigning appropriations arbitrarily is technical malversation,” he said.
Colmenares said that calling the opposition to the pork barrel a propaganda was an insult to the people, especially to the groups who took part and supported the million people march such as the religious leaders, students, bishops, and civil society groups.
Colmenares said that the President should have instead announced the abolition of the pork barrel by declaring that he has agreed to itemize the billion in lump sums in the 2014 budget.
The camp of Senator Revilla immediately denied that the senator has pocketed his priority development assistance funds (PDAF).
Revilla’s lawyer, Joel Bodegon, said the senator takes exception to the statement of President Aquino that his client has not denied his involvement in the P10 billion pork barrel scam.
He said that from the beginning, Senator Revilla has maintained that he is not a thief.
“Sen. Revilla takes exception to the statement of the President that he has not denied involvement in the so-called PDAF scam. Baka kaya siya walang naririnig ay dahil ayaw niyang makinig at hindi siya nakikinig. Senator Revilla from the beginning has maintained na hindi siya magnanakaw at wala siyang ninakaw sa pondo ng bayan,” he said.
This developed as ABS-CBN reported that Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) chairman Rene Villa admitted Thursday that he received P800,000 cash and a pickup truck from his client, businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, when he was still her lawyer.
Villa, a former Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary and member of President Aquino’s Liberal Party, said the cash and vehicles served as payment for his services as lawyer for Napoles’ JLN Corp.
He reiterated that he never made any illegal transaction with the businesswoman who is now facing plunder charges for allegedly masterminding the P10 billion pork barrel scam.
In an Inquirer report, records provided by former Napoles employees showed Villa received P500,000 taken from the vault of the Napoles office in Ortigas on February 24, 2010.
He also admitted receiving P300,000 from Napoles on May 6, 2010, but noted it was not a contribution for his unsuccessful campaign for Iloilo representative.
“Tayo ang ninakawan, tayo ang niloko, tapos tayo pa ngayon ang pinagpapaliwanag. Tayo ang patuloy na naghahanap ng katotohanan, tayo ang nagbawas nang nagbawas sa mga mekanismong maaaring gamitin para abusuhin ang kapangyarihan? tapos, tayo pa ngayon ang pinaparatangang ‘Pork Barrel King,’” President Aquino said.
“Baka naman po may natitira pang kabaitan sa inyo. Sana po, gumawa na kayo ng kilos para naman sa kapwa ninyo, at hindi lang para sa sarili,” he added.
After it was revealed that several lawmakers have channeled a portion of their pork barrel funds to fake non-government organizations, Aquino immediately called for its abolition.
President Aquino clarified that the PDAF and DAP are different from each other.
“Let me make it clear: The Disbursement Acceleration Program is not pork barrel. Of the DAP releases in 2011 and 2012, only nine percent was disbursed for projects suggested by legislators,” the President said in his address to the nation.
“The DAP is not theft. Theft is illegal. Spending through DAP is clearly allowed by the Constitution and by other laws. DAP is only a name for a process in which government can spend both savings and new and additional revenues,” he noted.
President Aquino explained that funds for DAP came from “our efforts to stop the connivance of some in bidding for contracts, in padding costs, overpricing, and kickbacks.”
“They came from the proper spending of our budget. They came from the good governance now seen in our GOCCs (government owned and controlled corporations),” he noted.
The President cited as an example of this is the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), an agency once buried in debt, and which now remits dividends to the national government annually.
“Savings, above-target collections, and new revenues are the results of good governance. And because of DAP, these funds were allocated to projects that were within the proposed budget and that had a clear benefit to the country,” he said.
The President said projects such as “Project NOAH”, which was funded thru DAP, “reached our countrymen faster and earlier, and we were able to spend the money allocated yearly in our National Budget more prudently and efficiently.”
Project NOAH gives accurate and timely warnings during calamities.
Also, because of DAP, President Aquino said, the “Training-for-Work Scholarship Program” of TESDA, wherein almost 150,000 Filipinos were able to study, and no less than 90,000 of them are currently employed.
The President said DAP also benefited the Philippine Air Force and the police.
Thru DAP, the government were also able to construct infrastructure in Mindanao and other parts of the country, restore the benefits of DepEd employees by paying their GSIS premiums, which had long been unpaid by the government, and fund many other programs and projects that have a real, tangible benefit to Filipinos.
Presidnet Aquino said DAP also played an important role in the country’s economic resurgence.
According to the World Bank, DAP contributed 1.3 percentage points to our GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2011, he noted.
“You can decide for yourselves: Is this wrong? When has it ever been wrong to look for a constitutional way to serve our countrymen more effectively?” he asked.
“The issue here is theft. I did not steal. Those who have been accused of stealing are those who are sowing confusion; they want to dismantle all that we have worked so hard to achieve on the straight path. We were stolen from, we were deceived — and now we are the ones being asked to explain? I have pursued truth and justice, and have been dismantling the systems that breed the abuse of power — and yet I am the one now being called the ‘Pork Barrel King’?” he stressed.
“This is what I say to them: If you think that this will stop me from going after you, if you think that you can divert the public’s attention, if you think you can get away with stealing from our countrymen — you have sorely underestimated me and the Filipino people. If there still remains some vestige of kindness in your hearts, I hope that you stop acting in self-interest, and instead act to help your fellowmen,” the President said.
Colmenares added: “He missed the opportunity to salvage a little of his sagging popularity by maintaining his stubborn and unreasonable defense of pork.” .
Fellow Bayan Muna partylist Representative Carlos Zarate said the President should not distinguish between his allies and political enemies in the prosecution of officials who stole the pork barrel.
ACT Teachers partytlist Representative Antonio Tinio said the President message indicated his refusal to acknowledge the valid constitutional and legal questions about the possible abuse of the chief executive’s powers over appropriations through the DAP.
“Aquino’s speech boiled down to an assertion of moral exceptionalism, a pig-headed defense of the presidential pork, and a repudiation of the public clamor for its abolition,” Tinio said.
Anakpawis partylist Representative Fernando Hicap said the President’s message “will not erase the prevailing public opinion that corruption persisted under his presidency.”
For his part, Kabataan partylist Representative Terry Ridon said that while Aquino defended DAP and the pork barrel, he “remained silent on its misuse,” and maintained that DAP “is an usurpation of the constitutional prerogative of Congress to determine specific appropriations of government.”