Jinggoy on DAP ruling: Heads must roll

MANILA, Philippines — Detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada said on Tuesday that government officials should be dismissed for the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) which has been declared partially unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

"Now that the highest court of the land said that the DAP is unconstitutional and illegal, heads must roll and budget officials must be held accountable," Estrada said in a statement, which was also released through the senator's official Twitter account.

Estrada said the DAP, on its face, is unconstitutional and has no basis. He said the controversial fund scheme is also nowhere to be found in the General Appropriations Act.

"I thank the Supreme Court for respecting and upholding the Congress’ exclusive power of the purse," he said.

The DAP was highly criticized last year after Estrada revealed in a privilege speech that some senator-judges in the Corona impeachment trial received additional funds.

Denying that these were bribes, the Aquino administration later said that the extra funds were from the DAP, a stimulus fund scheme that realigns government savings from stalled projects to boost the economy.

Estrada made his privilege speech that lead to the DAP controversy after he was embroiled in the pork barrel scam.

He is currently detained in the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

Senators welcome SC decision

Meanwhile, Estrada's colleagues also welcomed the SC ruling declaring parts of the DAP unconstitutional.

Senator Ralph Recto said the court decision will surely rewrite the program on how government appropriations are utilized.

"Government must abide by the decision so henceforth all expenditures must comply with the doctrines set forth by this ruling," Recto said.

But the senator also defended the Aquino administration, claiming that the DAP practices struck down as unconstitutional have long been abandoned.

"These violations are not in progress but have long been unilaterally terminated by the government," he said.

For her part, Senator Miriam Santiago Santiago said she anticipated the SC ruling months ago, even before the matter reached the high court.

She said through the DAP, the budget department is "chipping away at the legislative power of the purse by fiddling with the budget,"

"It's basically a no-brainer. The DAP is illegal because it was not contained in the 2011 or 2012 budgets, and because the alleged savings were used to augment new budget items which was not previously authorized by Congress," she said.

Santiago also renewed her call for the Commission on Audit to probe into the alleged bribery of Congress members during Corona impeachment trial exposed by Estrada last year.

"Both the pork barrel and DAP scandals are equally repulsive, and the Supreme Court declared both funds as unconstitutional. I wholeheartedly welcome the impartial adjudication of these abominable abuses of public funds by the Supreme Court since I cannot obtain relief from the Senate itself, which appeared to have been complicit in bribery," Santiago said. - Louis Bacani