MANILA, Philippines—Saying any impeachment move against President Benigno Aquino III was “bound to fail,” Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago instead trained her gun at Budget Secretary Florencio Abad as she called for his resignation.
Santiago acknowledged that Aquino could be impeached if indeed he signed a circular creating the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
The DAP was declared unconstitutional Tuesday by the Supreme Court.
“Well, let’s just assume for the sake of argument, there’s a circular. Can the President be impeached? Definitely,” she said during a press conference at the Senate on Wednesday.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“But you know impeachment is both a legal and a political topic. You cannot separate one from the other ,” Santiago said. “So if you just asking me can he be impeached? Definitely.”
“But can he be impeached in reality meaning to say, do you have enough votes? Because you know ,you have to raise certain votes to bring it to a committee and the plenary and so on…that would be another question,” Santiago said.
“I think it is bound to fail but I will not blame those who will attempt to check, to test the waters or to float a trial balloon,” Santiago added.
And to spare the President from further embarrassment, the senator said Abad should resign from his post. She said all those who received the DAP funds should also be charged with criminal and civil cases.
Asked if Abad should be held liable over the DAP funds, he senator said: “Oh yes. My gentle recommendation although I wasn’t asked is just resign because it will show the public that you are contrite.”
It would not look good, she said, if no one would be held liable even after the Supreme Court ruled that the DAP funds were unconstitutional.
“You have to at least point a finger to somebody. Definitely the DBM,” said the senator, referring to the Department of Budget and Management being headed by Abad.
“And if only to spare the President from further embarrassment, the Secretary has to resign,” Santiago added.
She said Abad could not simply say that the DAP was done in good faith.
“There’s no such thing! In the Penal Code or in Criminal Law, you don’t consider the good faith of a person except in certain instances . In fact, in the Penal Code, restitution is specifically provided as a crime so we should get back this P1.1 billion…”
The P1.1 billion was the reported total DAP funds that were released to 20 senators in 2012 and 20133.
Santiago said the government could get back the funds by filing criminal and civil cases against the lawmakers who got the DAP funds.
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