By Sammy F. Martin
MANILA, (PNA) — Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad on Thursday said her office has not received Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) after she signed the impeachment complaint in July 2005 against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Abad was reacting to the speech delivered by Senator Jinggoy Estrada Wednesday where the senator implied that the Commission on Audit (COA) only audited P2 million PDAF fund.
“When my husband (DBM Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad), who initially served as Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary under the Arroyo administration, resigned from his position, together with nine other Cabinet and key officials in July 2005 in protest against acheating in the 2004 elections, all PDAF support to Batanes ceased,” Abad said in a press statement.
According to the House Deputy Speaker, she was forced not to seek reelection in 2007 because she does not want to deny her province of national government funds because of her political conviction.
“Senator Estrada’s claims that COA’s Special Report was biased in my favor are as inaccurate as they are baseless,” she pointed out.
Abad said with respect to the alleged partial audit by COA of PDAF releases made to Batanes, “I continue to denounce Sen. Estrada’s implication that our office was engaged in irregular and dishonest practices in the use of PDAF, or that my personal and political affiliations have protected me from proper public scrutiny.”
To show exactly how little her district received in PDAF during the previous administration, during her first term under the 13th Congress from July 1, 2004 until June 30, 2007, she received only a total of P9.15 million in PDAF.
The last Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) issued to her office was dated March 3, 2005, but the corresponding Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA) was never released.
“Our district was therefore unable to make use of this fund, and crucial projects that would have benefited the people of Batanes could not be implemented,” she recalled.
“I can attest to the fact that all infrastructure projects were blocked from that point on, thus impeding the delivery of much-needed social services to the citizens of Batanes,” she concluded.