Noy turns down Abad resignation

MANILA, Philippines - Under fire for the Disbursement Acceleration Program that he is believed to have engineered, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad tendered a courtesy resignation that was immediately rejected by President Aquino who said the DAP had benefited the people.

The Chief Executive made the surprise announcement yesterday morning in a meeting with Cabinet members, wherein the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) chief presented the national budget for 2015.

“Secretary Abad gave me a letter (Thursday) tendering his resignation from the Cabinet and I have considered the same and I have decided not to accept his resignation,” Aquino told Cabinet officials at the Aguinaldo State Dining Room.

Cabinet officials – except Vice President Jejomar Binay – applauded after Aquino made the announcement.

“To accept his resignation is to assign to him a wrong and I cannot accept the notion that doing right by our people is a wrong. Therefore, I have decided not to accept his resignation and I think the whole Cabinet should be made aware of this,” Aquino said.

“Even our most vociferous critics grant that DAP has benefited our people,” he added.

The President has been under extreme pressure to fire Abad since the Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling declaring certain acts under DAP unconstitutional. Abad is a close friend of Aquino and a stalwart of the ruling Liberal Party.

The President has also been defending Abad – although unofficially – from accusations that the latter was involved in the pork barrel scam.

Asked to comment on Aquino’s rejection of Abad’s resignation offer, Binay said the “President has made a decision and I respect his decision.”

He said “the decision to accept or reject the resignation is the prerogative of the President.” He said officials should be careful about their moves lest the DAP controversy would evolve into a bigger crisis.

Binay earlier said disclosure of all projects funded through DAP would be “a good starting point” for proving “good faith” on the part of officials involved in such projects.

“Let me state as a lawyer that the question of accountabilities of government officials would have to be reckoned as part of the legal and logical consequences of this groundbreaking decision. As you all know, the Supreme Court has placed the onus of proving ‘good faith’ on those who conceived and implemented the DAP,” Binay said in a speech during the regular meeting of the Rotary Club of Manila.

“But where do we start? For me, a good starting point would be to make available to the public all the projects funded by DAP. This is after all, consistent with the tenets of full transparency that is the cornerstone of the Aquino administration and I do hope my colleagues will reconsider a reported decision to withhold the release of the so-called DAP list,” he added.

Mixed reactions

The President’s rejection of Abad’s resignation  drew mixed reactions from senators and members of the House of Representatives.

Senators Vicente Sotto III, Antonio Trillanes IV, Grace Poe, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Juan Edgardo Angara said they respect the President’s prerogative with regard to Abad’s case.

While it is the President’s prerogative to keep Abad, Poe said the executive department should still be able to explain how the multibillion-peso DAP funds were used.

Poe also batted for a special audit of all disbursements under the DAP.

“That is the President’s exclusive prerogative. I maintain that what is really important now is Secretary Abad’s explanation to the public of the disbursements under DAP and the COA (Commission on Audit) special audit of the same,” Poe said.

“This is the only way the public can be assured and enlightened on how the billions in public money were spent consistent with the government’s claim of good faith,” Poe added.

Angara, for his part, said Abad’s decision shows the latter’s being sensitive to public opinion.

“The resignation of Abad in the wake of the Supreme Court decision striking down the DAP as unconstitutional shows he has a sense of delicadeza and is not insensitive to public opinion,” Angara said.

“As to the President’s rejection of such a resignation, we cannot fault the President if he feels that Sec. Abad is more of an asset than liability serving in his Cabinet,” Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means, said.

Trillanes said the President’s move reflected the President’s readiness to support his close allies even if such decision would go against public opinion.

“From a leadership perspective, it is the right thing to do. You don’t punish a subordinate for an action that you believe is right and you have adopted yourself,” Trillanes said. “From a political perspective, it will cause a PR crisis. Having said this, I would have done the same.”

Marcos said the DAP issue should have preeminence over the President’s friendship with Abad.

“Now, I can understand that the President values friendship. However, the people are asking – where is this issue headed? For me, this is beyond friendship,” Marcos said.

Marcos pointed out that the DAP is an issue of accountability and that “even the President is accountable to the people.”

Marcos said that while he accepts the President’s decision, he finds it disappointing.

“That just shows that the President is still very much convinced of the rationale put forth by Secretary Abad on the Disbursement Acceleration Program, regardless of what the highest tribunal of the land said,” he said.

He said the President’s next move should be to ask Abad to account for the millions released through DAP. 

“The President must do the right thing – at least make Abad answer the nagging questions of the people: where did those funds go? Will Abad be willing to open their records for the people to look at so that there is no more doubt as to where the DAP was used?” 

He said until issues are addressed, the DAP controversy is likely to bedevil the administration until the end of its term. “And this is not good for the economy, not good for the people, and especially not good for the country,” Marcos added.

No funds stolen

For Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, Aquino was right about his decision to reject Abad’s resignation because the latter “has not pocketed a single centavo from DAP.”

“The only mistake of Abad was to put a name to the use of savings to various laudable projects and programs that spurred economic activities,” Evardone said.

He said Abad has been instrumental in “initiating various reforms in budgeting to ensure transparency, accountability and prudent use of public funds.”

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga said critics are banking too much on the Supreme Court decision that declared only a few portions of the DAP as unconstitutional.

Parañaque City Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, meanwhile, said it was Aquino’s prerogative or even privilege to accept or refuse the resignation of anyone in his Cabinet.

But he said the President’s rejection of Abad’s resignation reinforces perception that the administration’s daang matuwid (straight path) applies only to “other people, especially his political nemeses and not his friends, party-mates and allies.” 

Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza called Aquino’s rejection of Abad’s resignation “very disappointing.” He also warned Aquino to watch his back, claiming Abad had betrayed two presidents already – Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“What happened has no credibility at all in the eyes of the public as Abad could have made his resignation irrevocable, and PNoy should have accepted it,” Atienza said.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said the resignation was just a publicity stunt. Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Jose Rodel Clapano