Ejercito: What happened to DAP probe?

The Senate leadership has yet to act on a resolution calling for an inquiry into the Aquino administration’s controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), opposition Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito told the Inquirer over the weekend.

Ejercito, the author of Senate Resolution No. 287, indicated that two weeks after it was filed, the measure remained in limbo amid allegations the DAP was used to reward lawmakers who had voted to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona, as well as questions on its  constitutionality.

“I am saddened by the refusal of the Senate leadership to act on the resolution I filed seeking an inquiry into the DAP, especially amid the public clamor for greater accountability,” he said.

Ejercito filed the resolution seeking an inquiry on the DAP on Oct. 14, two weeks before Congress went on a Halloween break.

When it returns from the three-week recess on Nov. 18, the Senate is expected to devote most of its time to deliberations on the P2.268-trillion national budget for 2014.

Sen. Francis Escudero, chair of the Senate committee on finance, said Congress needed to pass the budget before the end of 2013 or run the risk of having a reenacted budget, something that he described as “the biggest pork barrel in the hands of the executive.”

Sought for comment on Ejercito’s resolution on the DAP, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said he couldn’t say for sure if SR 287 had been referred to a committee, but added that he had recommended that it be tackled during the  early part of the plenary debates on the budget.

“I would assume that it will go both to the rules and finance committees eventually because it involves two issues—the finance part and the legal part,” Cayetano said.

“But having said that, I recommended that it would be more expeditious and people will know the whole truth more if the senators take it up [in the plenary] on Nov. 18 when we start the  budget [deliberations] because in hearings, there’s no assurance that all the secretaries will be there,” Cayetano said.

He said plenary debates on the General Appropriations Act usually start with the presentation of economic data from the Development Budget Coordinating Council, composed of President Aquino’s economic and finance managers, including Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

On whether Ejercito’s resolution had been junked, Cayetano said, “Not at all.”

“It belongs to the committee on finance,” he added.

Cayetano said it took a month before Escudero’s resolution seeking an inquiry into the PDAF scam was taken up by the Senate blue ribbon committee, chaired by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III.