Detained Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines—Detained Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada criticized the Senate on Friday for acting like a “rah-rah” squad for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) during Thursday’s hearing on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
“I have watched the proceedings yesterday in its entirety. Lucky for Secretary Abad, there were a lot of members of the Senate who made the task of explaining the rationale and defending the implementation of the DAP easy for him,” Estrada said in a statement, referring to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
“At times, all he (Abad) has to do is to concur and merely agree with the defense prepared by the administration allies,” said the senator.
Estrada said the hearing “looked like a well scripted and rehearsed production.”
“Unfortunately, the Senate has lost another chance to redeem itself and to rise above partisan politics,” he said.
“Save for a few colleagues, like Senator Nancy Binay who may be a neophyte lawmaker and is not a lawyer but studied the DAP issue and facts lengthily, asked the tough questions and pressed for straight answers, the Senate seemed like a rah-rah squad for the budget department,” he pointed out.
The DAP hearing, he said, was no different from the series of investigations conducted by the Senate blue ribbons committee on the “pork barrel” scandal where he said “the obvious bias and partiality of some of the members showed.”
It was the blue ribbon committee that recommended the filing of plunder and other criminal cases against Estrada, Senators Juan Ponce-Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., among others over the “pork” scam.
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