Critics want DAP accountability, P-Noy impeachment

A list of projects using DAP funds is shown during the press conference of leftist groups seeking the President’s impeachment. LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines–The numbers may not be in their favor, but critics of the administration will file an impeachment complaint against President Aquino when Congress resumes this month.

Groups under Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) will also mount a big rally during the President’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) to muster public support for his impeachment over the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), parts of which have been declared unconstitutional.

“An impeachment is inevitable,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said. “It is our duty to fight for accountability, no matter the odds in Congress.”

Leaders of Bayan-affiliated groups met yesterday at their headquarters in Quezon City to discuss plans, including a protest action during the President’s delivery of the Sona on July 28.

“We’re hoping it will be a bigger rally than last year’s,” he said.

No basis

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. shrugged off the ouster moves. “I am certain there is no basis for impeachment and that none will prosper. The President acted in good faith in an effort to speed up government spending and spur the economy, which it did as confirmed by the high court itself in the ruling,” he said.

Reyes said he understood that impeaching the President was both a political and legal process, thus the groups would need to “bring the impeachment complaint to the people.”

An impeachment complaint will be filed in the House of Representatives before the Sona, so it can be included in the order of business once the lawmakers resume work, he said in an interview.

Reyes admitted that the progressive bloc did not have the numbers to ensure that the impeachment complaint would go to trial. But other civil society groups have signified their intention to support the move, he said.

File raps later

“Since the President is immune from suit, the only way to hold him accountable now is to impeach and convict him first then file the appropriate criminal and civil cases once he is removed from office,” Reyes said.

“More than a numbers game, impeachment is the prescribed way of holding the highest officials of the country accountable for their wrongdoing,” he said.

Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon said the high tribunal itself in its decision on the DAP pointed toward the filing of civil, administrative and criminal charges against Mr. Aquino and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

He quoted a paragraph in the 92-page decision penned by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin: “The decision of operative fact can apply only to the PAPs [projects, activities and programs] that can no longer be undone, and whose beneficiaries relied in good faith on the validity of the DAP, but cannot apply to the authors, proponents and implementors of the DAP, unless there are concrete findings of good faith in their favor by the proper tribunals determining their criminal, civil, administrative and other liabilities.”

Clear court directive

“The justices of the Supreme Court are in fact telling the Filipino people that Mr. Aquino and Abad should be held liable over the DAP,” Ridon said.

“The P157 billion used in the DAP could have been placed in providing health, education and social services. These services which directly affect the lives of ordinary Filipinos, suffered annual cuts in the three years that the DAP was implemented,” said Gert Ranjo-Libang, Gabriela women’s group vice chair.

Reyes said Bayan was looking into several pieces of evidence in the preparation of the impeachment complaint against the President, including the logical possibility that part of the DAP funds went to the bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) created by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

“One [piece of evidence] will be the seven memorandums signed by the President authorizing the release of the DAP funds. Part of the DAP funds, P6.5 billion, went to augment the PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund], and it is our belief that part of the P6.5 billion PDAF augmentation went to the senators which in turn went to the Napoles NGOs,” he said.

Hypocritical program

The DAP was a stimulus package introduced by the Aquino administration in 2011 to fast-track public spending and push economic growth.  It came under fire after senators revealed last year that the funds had been used as incentives for legislators who supported the impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said that “ultimately history will be mindful of the fact that the people demanded accountability from a deceptive President peddling the hypocritical program of  matuwid na daan (righteous path).”

He noted that many of the House members now with Aquino likely to block the impeachment move were also “rabid allies before” of disgraced former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when impeachment complaints were filed against her.

Crime without criminal?

Greco Belgica, one of the nine petitioners who questioned the DAP in the Supreme Court, said the public should ignore Malacañang’s defense that the program had been implemented in good faith, asserting that officials behind it should be held criminally liable.

“Can there be a crime without a criminal? Definitely not. It doesn’t need a court decision to know it is a crime as it is clearly written by the text of the Constitution. Justice requires retribution and mending of ways. Without it there cannot be justification. We are now studying the text of the decision,” said Belgica, a former councilor and losing senatorial candidate.  “In short, they can be charged.

Harry Roque, Belgica’s lawyer, said: “The court wanted to shield recipients who had nothing to do with the DAP but upheld [long-standing] rule that those responsible for the illegal act should be held liable.”–With a report from Tarra Quismundo and Gil C. Cabacungan