We all know that the biggest controversy hounding the Aquino regime is the declaration by the Supreme Court that the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is unconstitutional. Yet the Aquino regime through Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad goes out of his way to defend the DAP, when it has become indefensible. It is his continued defense of DAP that got him the ire of angry students at the University of the Philippines (UP) and we are happy that dissent is alive and well in UP. Shame on those UP professors who demanded an apology from those students.
While nearly everyone who got their share of the DAP is trying to distance themselves from this toxic, albeit unconstitutional fund, which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) identified was given to 22 Senators and 116 Congressmen and women, the majority of which went to the President’s allies in the Liberal Party (LP), but in Cebu, former Cebu City Mayor and former Congressman Tomas Osmeña admitted to having benefited from the DAP funds.
Sensing perhaps that in due time the media would expose the names of those who got this DAP fund, last Thursday, The Freeman came up with this headline “Tomas: I got DAP Money!” This was what former Rep. Tomas Osmeña admitted for the first time to the public. As The Freeman report said, “Osmeña is the lone Cebuano representative among the top 10 recipients of DAP funds.” Osmeña said that he got P120 million from that fund, but said that he didn’t know that this money came from DAP.
The former Cebu City Mayor and Congressman said, “I don’t care what others would say. I’m proud of the projects from DAP. I used it for the people and I fought for it for the city. Rest assured that there were no fictitious non-government organizations used so I would receive it.”
I laud former Mayor Tomas Osmeña for his open admission that he got DAP funds and his honesty for even saying that he is proud of DAP. His admission could ruin his chances of regaining his mayoralty seat because he is the only one who openly admitted to have benefited from DAP.
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One of the highlights of the 20th Cebu Press Freedom Week was Globe Telecom’s 3rd Cebu Media Excellence Awards at the Marriot Hotel. Since I had to leave early for the birthday of former Governor Pablo Garcia, I asked Globe Telecom’s Communications Head Yoly Crisanto what was the good news that she was going to announce to the Cebu Media that evening.
Yoly told me that Globe Telecom is expanding its LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD footprint in the Visayas and Mindanao. This was the result of the signing last September 17th of a partnership between Globe Telecom and Alcatel Lucent in Paris, France for the transformation of the Globe’s wireless network from the present WiMax to LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD, which was signed by Ayala Corp. President & CEO Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Alctael CEO Michel Combes with French President Francois Hollande and Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III as witnesses. This is good news to smart mobile phone users because their Internet speeds are going to be blindly fast.
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Last Thursday was the 89th birthday celebration of former Cebu Governor and former Deputy Speaker Rep. Pablo “Pabling” Garcia which was held at the Casino Español and he had two distinguished guests, first was former Cebu Governor and former Senator and former DPWH Secretary Rene Espina who I noticed was getting older, but his hair had grown. When he was Cebu Governor, I recall Gov. Rene was a balding man.
Former Sen. Rene Espina was asked to give a tribute to Pabling Garcia and he gave tribute to the former Cebu Governor that during their days in the late 60’s when then Sen. Sergio “Serging” Osmeña, Jr. transferred many provincial lots (including the old Club Filipino Golf course, which is now the Ayala Business Park), Gov. Rene blocked that transfer all the way to the Supreme Court with the young Atty. Pabling Garcia defending the Province of Cebu as a private lawyer.
Pabling won the case for the Province of Cebu, which is why when then Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña sold the 45-hectare Club Filipino Golf Course; the Province of Cebu made a handsome profit from that sale. What a great story that only former Cebu Governor Rene Espina could tell. I didn’t arrive in time to hear the tribute by former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad. But when the birthday celebrant took the microphone to thank his well-wishers, he gave a tribute to Sen. Kit and his wife Fely Tatad for their relentless effort to defend the Catholic Faith. Kudos to former Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia for he himself acted as God’s lawyer in the fight against the RH Bill, which he steadfastly blocked in Congress for so many years as Congressman until under Pres. PNoy the RH Bill was made into a law, although a toothless law!
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