UNA after Abad’s head, not Aquino’s, over DAP

By: Frances Mangosing, Marc Jayson Cayabyab - 10 years ago

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines– The United Nationalist Alliance on Thursday dared President Benigno Aquino III to sack and charge with plunder Budget Secretary Butch Abad over the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), parts of which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (SC).

The party backed by Vice President Jejomar Binay said it would not support calls for the impeachment of Aquino out of ‘delicadeza.’

“UNA will not participate in moves to impeach the President on the unconstitutionality of DAP, out of ‘delicadeza’ and for reasons of conflict of interest since the Vice President is the second highest official of the land. The VP has made his position clear that impeachment is divisive and unproductive,” Navotas Representative and UNA spokesperson Toby Tiangco said in a statement.

Tiangco said that Abad should be made accountable especially with the SC saying that palace officials are not yet off the hook.

“It is only proper that Butch Abad be charged with plunder as the money involved got P170-billion which is 17 times larger than that amassed by Napoles,” Tiangco said.

Tiangco also said Janet Napoles’ former employee, Merlina Suñas, had kept records that would show that Abad has long been an accomplice of Napoles in both the pork barrel scam and the DAP fiasco.

“Napoles could not have gotten DAP funds from five senators without Abad’s knowledge. Butch is a smart guy and Merlina Suñas knows very well how they work with Napoles,” he said.

“Si Abad na ang ‘King of Scams’! Dapat nang tanggalin ni PNoy si Abad dahil puro kalokohaan at kahihiyan ang ibinibigay nya–at mahiya naman sya sa taumbayan sa bilyon-bilyong pisong pinakialaman nya,” he added.

(Abad is the King of Scams! Aquino should remove Abad from office. Abad should be ashamed to the Filipino people for plundering billions of pesos.)

Tiangco noted that Suñas has kept Napoles’ ledgers indicating how funds were released through DAP and how funds were coursed through various bogus Napoles non-government organizations that were supposed to implement the projects identified by Abad.

DAP funds, essentially an economic stimulus fund and a savings-impounding mechanism, have been criticized after Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada exposed that the supposed presidential “pork barrel” funds were given allegedly as incentives to senators who voted to oust convicted Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Various groups lauded the SC’s move to rule parts of DAP, criticized as the president’s “pork barrel,” as unconstitutional.

Militant groups said they would file an impeachment complaint against Aquino over DAP, but presidential allies in Congress said they would block it.