If I got DAP funds, I didn’t ask for them–Santiago

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago: I did not ask for them INQUIRER.net PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Thursday said that if any funds sourced from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) were listed as having been made available to her, she had not asked for these and that her office had received these “in due course.”

Commenting on reports that she was among the senators who benefited from the DAP, Santiago said the usual practice was for the Senate secretariat to inform a senator that there is a certain sum of money available for his or her use for their projects.

She said she did not inquire as to the source of the funds, and she was not informed that these had been sourced from the DAP.

“Since the notice came from the secretariat, I simply relied on the presumption of regularity in the discharge of official functions. I did not inquire whether the funds were PDAF (priority development assistance funds) or DAP. All disbursements that I made were properly reported as required by law,” she said in a statement.

She said she had assigned the funds that it would now appear came from the DAP to her “usual PDAF projects,” mostly involving programs of the University of the Philippines system, the Philippine General Hospital or certain local government units.

But Santiago said she was certain she had not given these funds to nongovernment organizations.

The senator said she had earlier requested the Department of Budget and Management for a list of DAP releases made to her. It took some time before the list was submitted, she said.

“And when I received it, even I was surprised because when my office reportedly received the funds, they were not identified as DAP funds,” she said.

Santiago also said that if she is mentioned in news reports because of the listing of DAP releases, she would understand that there was no malice there.

But she would view it differently if she would be singled out, and would consider it an attempt to silence her because she had called for Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to appear at a question hour in the Senate.

“But if my name alone is given prominence, then I will interpret this news as an attempt to cow me, because I authored the resolution calling for Question Hour with the secretary of the budget and management,” she said.