Former Sen. Joker Arroyo: Where did it go? INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Former Sen. Joker Arroyo insisted on Thursday he never received the purported P47 million from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and demanded that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) account for the entire multibillion-peso facility but steered clear of calls for the impeachment of President Aquino.
Arroyo insisted that his P47-million allocation from the DAP was never released by the executive department, and wondered if the same thing happened to the rest of the DAP fund.
“The money never left Malacañang. It never left the DBM,” he said, pointing out that the accounting of the P47 million should serve as a “template” for accounting of the rest of the DAP fund.
“If I am complaining about the P47 million, which I did not receive, what happened to the P150 billion of DAP releases? Where did it go? Shades of Napoles,” he added, referring to the pork barrel scam allegedly orchestrated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.
The amounts were listed, but so far, “there’s no accounting,” Arroyo said. “That is what the DAP is all about.”
“We’ll have another divisive process, instead of attending to problems,” Arroyo said. “I’m not in favor of impeachment, not for the sake of Noynoy but for the sake of the country…. We are at the bottom of the heap among the countries in Southeast Asia. We have a lot of catching up to do. All hands should be on deck.”
In September last year, Arroyo was identified by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad as among the 20 senators that identified projects funded with the DAP, which the Supreme Court declared on Tuesday unconstitutional.
Abad confirmed that 20 senators received additional pork barrel amounting to P1.107 billion after the Senate impeachment court voted to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona in May 2012 and that the fund was sourced from the DAP, an economic stimulus program.
Like Arroyo, Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have likewise denied receiving any similar DAP funding. All three voted to acquit Corona. Malacañang has been accused of dangling the DAP-funded pork barrel to senators to convict Corona.
Arroyo said the DBM should account for the P47 million that was purportedly allotted to him, as well as the rest of the DAP fund that was allocated to his colleagues.
“Of course, the burden is now on them (DBM). Where did the P150 billion go?” he said in an interview by phone.
DAP savings were pegged at P142.23 billion. Some P158 billion were disbursed under the DAP, according to reports.
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