MANILA, Sept. 18 (PNA) – Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago admitted on Thursday that she received funds for her pet projects but didn’t know it came from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds.
”If any DAP releases were made to me, I did not ask for them,” Santiago said in a press statement, reacting to Department of Budget and Management (DBM)’s new list of DAP senator recipients that included her name.
Santiago explained the funds must have been received “in due course by my office” from the Senate secretariat.
”The usual practice was for the Senate secretariat to inform the senator that a certain sum of money was available for her use in favor of projects for her constituency,” Santiago said.
”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 or DAP. All disbursements that I made were properly reported as required by law,” she added.
Santiago said before the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), she used to assign funds to her usual PDAF projects such as University of the Philippines (UP) system throughout the country, Philippine General Hospital and other hospitals and local government units.
”But certainly not to NGOs,” Santiago assured, referring to the non-government organizations (NGOs) linked to alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.
Santiago said there should be no malice if the inclusion of her name is necessitated by a listing of all DAP releases.
”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 Budget and Management,” she explained.
Santiago said she even requested from the DBM a list of any DAP releases to her a few months ago.
”It took them some time to give me the list. And when I received it, even I was surprised, because when my Office reportedly received the funds, they were not identified as DAP funds,” Santiago said.
Aside from Santiago, other incumbent senators in the DBM’s new list of DAP-funded projects are Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Ramon Revilla Jr., Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, Alan Peter Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Teofisto Guingona III, Sergio Osmeña III, Juan Ponce Enrile, Franklin Drilon, Gringo Honasan, Francis Escudero, Pia Cayetano, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Lito Lapid, and Juan Edgardo Angara (as former Aurora congressman).
Former Senators Manny Villar, Francis Pangilinan, Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo were also named in the DBM’s new list of senators who endorsed DAP projects. (PNA)