Makabayan bloc denies link with P230M DAP milk fund
MANILA, Philippines–A lawmaker from the Makabayan bloc denied Tuesday that members of the militant coalition are involved in the P230-million milk feeding program funded by the outlawed Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and recently questioned by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Gabriela Women’s Party-list Representative Emerciana “Emmi” De Jesus said that her office does not know that the milk feeding project was funded by DAP and that the National Dairy Authority (NDA) said that it is part of its budgeted projects.
The lawmaker also said that many findings of COA should be linked to the NDA.
De Jesus said that her office was allotted P2,496,000 worth of milk feeding grants. However, De Jesus said that her office was not involved in the anomaly in the bidding process for the project and maintained that NDA should be the one held accountable.
“My office was never a part of the loop for the bidding procedures, and not even made a part of information sharing for the bidding, processes which are NDA’s own,” said De Jesus.
De Jesus also said that upon discovering the irregularities of the milk feeding project, her office wrote to NDA to pull out from the project and cancel the assigned allotment meant for a Sorsogon school.
She also said that she stands firm with the stance of the Makabayan bloc calling DAP unconstitutional and “involved the biggest fund management irregularity of this administration.”
The Makabayan bloc has endorsed two impeachment complaints against President Aquino for the implementation of the outlawed DAP.
Aside from De Jesus, other Makabayan representatives allegedly involved in the DAP-funded milk feeding program were Representatives Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers Partylist, Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna, Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis and Raymond Palatino of Kabataan.
COA recently revealed that the NDA milk feeding project involved dubious signatures, had anomalies in the bidding process and had not contributed to the DAP’s goal of “stimulating the economy”.
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