FORMER Senator Edgardo Angara said detained Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada was “grossly mistaken” in insinuating that the P50 million allotted to him from the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was misappropriated.
Estrada earlier said that Angara need not look far where his DAP allocation went, citing the Special Audit Report of the Commission on Audit (COA) which supposedly showed that the latter funneled his pork barrel funds to his own foundation called “the Kalusugan ng Bata, Karunungan ng Bayan, Inc.”
But Angara denied there was such a COA report against the foundation or the “K and K.”
“The COA Report merely required K and K to submit additional documents. K and K already submitted to COA full accounting of the funding it was given (P14M) and a full liquidation was made as shown in the Fund Utilization Report,” the former senator said in a statement on Thursday.
Angara said Estrada was also mistaken for the simple reason that the COA Report pertained to transactions made by K and K in 2007 and 2008.
“K and K has already wound up its business as early as 2009, and finally closed in 2011. Meanwhile, the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona began on January 16, 2012 and ended on May 29, 2012,” he pointed out.
The former senator was referring to Estrada’s exposé in 2013 that senators who voted to impeach Corona were allotted P50 million each as incentive. Angara and Estrada were among who voted for Corona’s impeachment.
READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/494931/senators-who-convicted-corona-got-p50m-more-says-estrada
Angara said the foundation, which he said was duly registered with the Security and Exchange Commission ),was established to conduct a school feeding program in certain public schools considered nutritionally deficient.
“The school feeding program was considered a success as the pupils’ academic performance, school attendance and physical health increased greatly,” he said.
“After it was terminated, the K and K submitted a full liquidation and accounting of funds and submitted a Fund Utilization Report to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the disbursing and monitoring agency,” he added.
The exchange between the two was triggered after Angara described as “reckless” and “unfair” Estrada’s DAP exposé in a new biography titled “Edgardo J. Angara: In the grand manner.”
In the book, Angara admitted getting the P50 million allocation but said he was no longer certain where the allocation went. AC