Abad facing new plunder charges over DAP

MANILA, Philippines - Another plunder complaint was filed against Budget Secretary Florencio Abad before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for his involvement in the release of public funds through the Aquino administration’s controversial disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Bonifacio Alentajan, former president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), lodged the charges and asked Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to order the preventive suspension of Abad pending investigation of the complaint.

Alentajan has accused Abad of using the scheme to bribe senators into voting for the impeachment of former chief justice Renato Corona.

Alentajan anchored his plunder, graft and malversation of public funds complaint on detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s exposé that 19 of his colleagues, including himself, were given P50 million each to vote in favor of Corona’s impeachment.

The Supreme Court (SC) has declared 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 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.

“The tenor and context of the challenges posed against the DAP indicate that the DAP contravened the Constitution by allowing the executive to allocate funds of its various agencies in the guise of the President exercising his constitutional authority under the Constitution to transfer funds out of savings to augment the appropriations of offices within the executive branch of the government,” Alentajan said.

“The challenges are further complicated by the interjection of allegations of transfer of funds to agencies or offices outside the executive,” he added.