Post-impeachment pork: Drilon, Enrile top list

By: Michael Lim Ubac - 11 years ago

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Twenty senators received a total of P1.107 billion in additional pork barrel a few months after they voted to convict former Chief Justice Renato Corona last year.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on Saturday confirmed the fund releases, but immediately pointed out that the funds came from the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that was introduced in 2011 to “ramp up spending and help accelerate economic expansion.”

Of the 20 senators who voted to convict Corona for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, only then Sen. Panfilo Lacson did not accept the additional pork from the executive larder.

But then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Franklin Drilon (former chair of the Senate finance committee), and Sen. Francis Escudero received double helpings of the additional pork barrel.

Two of the three senators who voted to acquit Corona got nothing: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, who also voted to exculpate Corona, was allotted P47 million, which was released in February 2013.

Arroyo, who retired last June, did not use the allocations for him in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for most of his term, which began in 2001.

Who got it, when

Those who received additional pork after Corona’s ouster and the corresponding amounts were: Senators Antonio Trillanes (October 2012–P50 million), Manuel Villar (October 2012–P50 million), Ramon Revilla (October 2012–P50 million), Francis Pangilinan (October 2012–P30 million), Loren Legarda (October 2012–P50 million), Lito Lapid (October 2012–P50 million), Jinggoy Estrada (October 2012–P50 million), Alan Cayetano (October 2012–P50 million), Edgardo Angara (October 2012–P50 million), Ralph Recto (October 2012–P23 million; December 2012–P27million), Koko Pimentel (October 2012–P25.5 million; November 2012–P5 million; December 2012–P15 million), Vicente Sotto III (October 2012–P11 million; November 2012–P39 million), Teofisto Guingona (October 2012–P35 million; December 2012–P9 million), Serge Osmeña (December 2012–P50 million), Enrile (December 2012–P92 million) and Drilon (December 2012–P100 million).

In previous interviews, Drilon admitted to getting only P50 million.

Early birds

Senators Gregorio Honasan and Escudero got their share way ahead of the others.

“There were two earlier releases made in late August of that same year (2012): Greg Honasan (P50 million) and Francis Escudero (P99 million),” Abad said.

“No releases were made in 2012 to Senators Ping Lacson, Joker Arroyo, Pia Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos and Miriam Defensor-Santiago,” he added.

“In 2013, however, releases were made for funding requests from the office of Senator Arroyo (February 2013–P47 million) and Sen. Pia Cayetano (January 2013–P50 million). The 24th senator then, Benigno S. Aquino III, was already President (at the time),” Abad said.

Lump-sum item

The DAP is a relatively new and little known lump-sum budgetary item. It was introduced by the Aquino administration in 2011 to spur economic activity.

But since 2012, the DAP has been tapped as a source of funding for senators’ additional development projects.

Abad said he released the list of senators who were granted additional funds to the public “in the interest of transparency.”

“To suggest that these funds were used as ‘bribes’ (in the impeachment trial) is inaccurate at best and irresponsible at worst,” Abad said in a statement issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Estrada’s insinuation

In a privilege speech on Wednesday, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada spoke about the P50-million additional pork as if it was a bribe given to the senators in exchange for voting to convict Corona.

Estrada raked up the matter to show that it was not only he and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. were involved in questionable releases of funds from the PDAF.

Later, Estrada said the P50 million was an “incentive,” but for what he did not make clear.

Plunder charges have been filed against Estrada, Enrile and Revilla, along with several former and current members of the House of Representatives in the Office of the Ombudsman for the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Contacted by phone, Abad confirmed that the additional releases from the DAP were on top of the P200-million PDAF allocation for every senator.

“(These are funds for) additional projects, mostly infra (infrastructure), to ramp up infra spending. Why JPE (Enrile’s initials) and Drilon got higher allocation? They were SP (Senate president) and chair of the finance committee, respectively. Many more go to them for help,” Abad said.

Escudero’s share

Abad also defended the decision to give Escudero a higher allocation.

He said Escudero “made a special appeal to the President, which was granted. He was zero or got little during GMA (former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) times.”

Escudero, a personal friend of the President, was the minority leader in the House when Arroyo faced repeated impeachment attempts involving the alleged rigging of the 2004 presidential election.

Then House members Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano and Mr. Aquino were on the same side during those tumultuous times.

They were elected to the Senate in 2007, with Mr. Aquino successfully running for President in 2010.

Senators’ request

The senators themselves apparently sought the additional funds.

Most releases from the DAP were made during the period October-December 2012, “based entirely on letters of request submitted to us by the senators,” Abad said.

Some senators admitted earlier that the plan to give them additional pork was hatched during a Senate caucus.

Caucuses are off-limits to senators’ staff and journalists.

Not bribes?

Abad also responded to Estrada’s insinuation that the additional releases, although not bribes, were “incentives” to the senators.

“In the interest of transparency, we want to set the record straight on releases made to support projects that were proposed by senators on top of their regular PDAF allocation toward the end of 2012,” Abad said.

“These fund releases have recently been touted as ‘bribes,’ ‘rewards,’ or ‘incentives.’ They were not. The releases, which were mostly for infrastructure projects, were part of what is called the Disbursement Acceleration Program designed by the Department of Budget and Management to ramp up spending and help accelerate economic expansion.”

Stimulus fund

Abad denied that the DAP was created to curry favor with the senators or maintain the allegiance of senators friendly to Malacañang.

“This was not the first time that releases from the DAP were made to fund project requests from legislators. In 2011, the DAP was instituted to ramp up spending after sluggish disbursements—resulting from the government’s preliminary efforts to plug fund leakages and seal policy loopholes within key implementing agencies—caused the country’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth to slow down to just 3.6 percent,” he said.

During this period, he said the government also accommodated requests for project funding from legislators and local governments, government-owned and –controlled corporations (GOCCs), and national government agencies “to help ease the country’s expenditure performance forward.”

In 2011, he said the DAP supported projects like the relocation of families living in dangerous zones (P10 billion) under the National Housing Authority, equity infusion under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (P10 billion), landowners’ compensation under the Department of Agrarian Reform or DAR (P5.4 billion), Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao comprehensive peace and development program (P8.6 billion), and the augmentation of local government units’ Internal Revenue Allotments (P6.5 billion).

In 2012, the DAP also funded crucial projects: tourism road construction under the Department of Tourism and the Department of Public Works and Highways or DPWH (P5 billion), the national goverment’s share for the Government Service Insurance System-Department of Education (DepEd) premium payments for teachers (P4.0 billion), DAR-DPWH “Tulay ng Pangulo” (P1.8 billion), Department of Health-DPWH rehabilitation of regional health units (P1.96 billion), DepEd’s public-private partnership for school infrastructure (P4.0 billion), and Bangko Sentral’s capital infusion (P20 billion).

Suspended

“For 2013, releases from the DAP for legislators were suspended by President Aquino in the aftermath of the Commission on Audit special audit report (of PDAF releases). To this day, no subsequent DAP releases have since been made to support lawmaker-endorsed projects, in much the same way as we suspended PDAF releases,” Abad said.

He said DAP releases were usually funded from unreleased appropriations under Personnel Services, as is the case when positions are either not filled or filled late, he said.

“The releases may also be funded from the Unprogrammed Fund—due to revenues generated beyond the target, such as GOCC dividends—carry-over appropriations unreleased from the previous year, as well as budgets for slow-moving items or projects that have been realigned to support faster-disbursing projects,” he said.

Not for politics

“In the particular case of infrastructure projects, the DAP has played a central role in boosting government spending and, ultimately, in expanding the economy. The DAP’s efficiency in moving public funds toward high-impact projects has in fact been expressed in our remarkable GDP growth, all while we endeavor to bring rapid, sustainable and inclusive development to the country,” he said.

“While it is unfortunate that DAP releases are now being maligned to serve some very questionable political interests, we hope that these fund releases are seen exactly for what they are: as a valuable fiscal tool for accelerating government spending, and the delivery of goods and services to the people, not as an instrument for political coercion,” Abad said.