Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has already started probing the five senators who allegedly misused the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP)given to them by Malacañang, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima confirmed Monday.
“Yes we are investigating that already. NBI is investigating the alleged use of DAP funds thru Napoles NGOs, as claimed by Benhur Luy. We have the documents on that already. We are evaluating and see…whether we have cases against those senators and if confirmed, then, what to do about it,” De Lima told reporters.
Based on Luy’s records, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III received P425 million from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as DAP funds between March and May 2012.
The high court declared DAP as unconstitutional. However, programs, activities and projects funded by DAP can be covered by the “operative fact doctrine.”
Under the operative fact doctrine, the law is recognized as unconstitutional but the effects of the unconstitutional law, prior to its declaration of nullity may be left undisturbed as a matter of equity and fair play.
On the other hand, proponents, implementors and authors of DAP are not spared unless they can prove good faith.
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