BY PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA – Ilongga senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was allocated funds from the government’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Santiago, however, denied she asked for such releases.
DBM released a detailed list of DAP-funded projects on Wednesday.
“They must have been received in due course by my office, from the Senate secretariat. If so, I would have assigned the funds to my usual PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) projects – such as the University of the Philippines System throughout the country, the Philippine General Hospital, other hospitals, or local government units – but certainly not to non-governmental organizations,” said Santiago in a statement released yesterday.
Earlier, the feisty legislator urged Secretary Florencio Abad of DBM to appear before the Senate and identify DAP-funded projects by both senators and congressmen.
This July, the Supreme Court struck down certain acts under DAP as unconstitutional.
According to Malacañang, DBM’s detailed list of DAP projects confirmed that the spending mechanism benefited the public and was not used to bribe senators.
Some senators already endorsed projects under the DAP even before Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached in December 2011, said Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte.
The DBM report showed that Santiago allocated funds to various local governments in Regions 1, 3, 4A, 6, and 7 in December 2011.
Santiago’s office also allocated to Saytan, Pugo in La Union in February 2012, according to DBM.
In 2013, the senator from Iloilo City released DAP funds to the Department of Public Works and Highways for “various infrastructure and local roads.”
Santiago said she didn’t bother ask where the funds came from because “I simply relied on the presumption of regularity in the discharge of official functions.”
Her fund disbursements, she confidently said, were “properly reported as required by law.”
Aside from Santiago, other senators who endorsed projects under DAP were Juan Edgardo Angara, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Franklin Drilon, Juan Ponce Enrile, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Teofisto Guingona III, Gregorio Honasan II, Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Sergio Osmeña III, Aquilino Pimentel III, Ralph Recto, Ramon Revilla Jr., Vicente Sotto III, and Antonio Trillanes IV.
Ex-senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan and Manuel Villar were also included in the list./PN
