Sen. Imee Marcos (INQUIRR FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos maintained on Thursday that senators were unaware of the P26.7 billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) line item inserted in the 2024 budget.
In an ambush interview on Thursday, Marcos explained how her and fellow senators’ signatures were placed in the page of the then-proposed 2024 national budget which contained the provisions for AKAP.
“Ayun nga, dahil House insertion ‘yun talagang hindi namin alam kung ano ‘yung mga nilalaman non. Kasi kinukuha ‘yung aming mga e-signature tapos sila na lang ang naglalapat sa final version na hindi kami dapat makialam daw sa mga House insertion. Hindi ko naman alam kung anu-anong insertion, e nagtitiwala kami na wala namang kalokohan,” she said.
(Because it’s a House insertion, we really don’t know what the contents were. Our e-signatures were collected and they affixed it the final version because we should not interfere with the House insertions. I don’t know what the insertions were, and we we believed that there were no irregularities.)
It was Marcos who initially brought to light the alleged scheme surrounding the Department of Social Welfare and Development‘s AKAP.
According to Marcos, the budget was foreign to senators, especially to her.
She even bared that AKAP was one of the government-sponsored aid programs used to entice Filipinos to join the signature drive to amend the 1987 Constitution.
But Senior Deputy Speaker Dong Gonzales said senators are, in fact, aware of the allocation. Gonzales said Marcos signed the very page where the insertion was made.
Billions of pesos
Marcos pointed out that the budget could’ve been used to help schools, students, farmers, as well as small and medium businesses.
“Mabuti kung maliit na halaga ‘yan, e ang laking tulong sana nyan…Isipin niyo, bilyon bilyon hindi natin alam kung saan mapupunta,” she said..
(It’s not a small amount, it would be a big help… Just think of it, we don’t know where billions of pesos will go.)
The senator stressed that the issue was that the House of Representatives made the insertion.
“May insertion ang House — ‘yun ang talagang problema. Talagang kami [ay] nagtitiwala at binibigay na namin ang e-signature. Hindi naman mano mano ‘yan eh — nasa kanila na ilapat. E ‘yun pala kung anu-ano na ang idinagdag,” she added.
(The House made the insertion — that’s the real problem. We really trusted them and we gave our e-signature. We don’t do that manually — it’s up to them to apply it. We didn’t know that they would add something like that.)