Whistleblowers’ ledger links lawmakers – and Napoles – to DAP

By Likha Cuevas-Miel
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

Senate whistleblowers are seen in this Sept.2013 file photo at the Senate with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. FILE PHOTO BY JOSEPH VIDAL, SENATE PRIB

MANILA – While the Department of Budget and and Management (DBM) is assembling documents sought by the Supreme Court, part of a ledger from records keepers of alleged ‘pork barrel’ queen Janet Lim Napoles may indicate how the funds released through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) were spent.

Below is one document kept by Mary Arlene Baltazar, former JLN bookkeeper, tasked with the filing and payments to BIR, Philhealth and SSS. She has since turned whistleblower to the pork barrel scam and records copied in her flash disk have been turned over to the Justice department as evidence.

This particular sheet refers to the proponents of supposedly DAP-funded projects as “Dahon”, “Sexy”, “Bigote”, “Tanda”, “Pogi” and “Bongets” – believed to be codenames assigned by Napoles to senators she transacted with.

The funds were coursed through the various Napoles non-government organizations (left column) that were supposed to implement projects in various local government units (LGUs).

The notes were written by Napoles herself, the whistleblowers said.

The document did not show how much in kickbacks the supposed lawmakers received, if at all.

(For further background, read how lawmakers allegedly amassed funds in deals with Napoles.)

DBM chief Florencio Abad had insisted earlier that the DAP funds released to lawmakers were not bribes for ousting former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, believed to be alias ‘Sexy’ who was charged with plunder and graft for his alleged role in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, had accused the government in a privilege speech of virtually “bribing” lawmakers with DAP allocations. Before the Estrada speech, few people knew—even several lawmakers themselves sounded surprised—of the name (Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP) given by DBM’s Abad to the funds he had justified for use as economic stimulus, given the sluggish growth in 2011 and early 2012. The tag “DAP” first became widely known only after Abad justified the allocations given to lawmakers as part of efforts to realign “savings” to quick-disbursing projects, even though DBM insisted official documents have long been using the term.

Abad admitted before the Supreme Court that Malacanang moved funds meant for the executive branch across another autonomous branch of government, which is the legislative, because it was “urgent and necessary”.

As for moving around funds, Abad contended it is not illegal since the Constitution provides that the three branches of government are given the power to realign funds within their own branches.

However, this was disputed by some Supreme Court justices, saying the President’s power to augment an appropriation is limited to increasing an item in the General Appropriations Act “for their respective offices.”

The decision on the constitutionality of DAP is still pending before the high tribunal, after the government twice sought extensions on the ground that documents sought by the justices were still being collated.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/80734/exclusive–whistleblowers-ledger-links-lawmakers—and-napoles—to-dap