Corruption is not without a price. Each day that we fail to act on it, we are paying a social and economic price for the future of our country and the next generation of our people.

On 2 October 2013, at least 11 senators received P500 million from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) while they were sitting as judges in the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

This was revealed by then senator Joker Arroyo, who voted to acquit Corona.

“At the height of the impeachment trial, over P500 million was taken from the PDAF and given to 11 senators,” he revealed. He, however, did not identify who of his colleagues got the PDAF releases.

Then Senate president Franklin Drilon admitted receiving P100 million after the Corona trial, but he insisted it was not a bribe. According to him, senators’ extra discretionary funds were not bribes.

The additional funds released to the senators on top of their P200-million pork barrel was part of the government’s stimulus fund called the Disbursement Acceleration Plan (DAP), Drilon said, and he used the money for infrastructure projects in Iloilo, which was then launching a bid to host the APEC ministerial meeting in 2015.

The question is, were the funds used in the right way? Secondly, because our spending program was low, our gross domestic product (GDP) was affected. Would there have been anything wrong if the money was used in the proper way?

Drilon was reacting to insinuations made by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada that the Senate leader facilitated the release of P50 million to each senator in exchange for Corona’s conviction when Drilon was the head of the Senate finance committee. Estrada later clarified that the offer was only an “appeal” and “incentive” and not a bribe.

Estrada later delivered a privilege speech decrying the government’s “selective justice” one week after the Department of Justice filed plunder charges against him and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., as well as then Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile, for the alleged misuse of their PDAF.

Then Budget Secretary Butch Abad confirmed that DAP funds were released to senators. The DAP was a stimulus package designed to combat underspending and boost the economy.

Drilon said “there was no logic” to claims that the funds were used to influence votes since they were released after the trial and conviction of Corona.

“During the trial, there were no releases. After the trial there were releases, including the DAP, because we needed to catch up on infrastructure spending to address what economists were saying about underspending. It was not just the senators who suggested that LGUs also had infrastructure projects. GOOCs (government-owned and controlled corporations) were also given additional funds under the DAP,” Drilon said.

In May 2012, 20 of 23 senators voted to convict Corona, including Estrada. The three who voted to acquit him were Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Joker Arroyo and Bongbong Marcos.

Records of the Department of Budget and Management, released three days after Estrada delivered his speech, showed that senators Ping Lacson, Joker Arroyo, Pia Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago did not receive any DAP disbursements in 2012.

Arroyo and Cayetano, however, received P47 million and P50 million, respectively, from the DAP in early 2013.

Asked why the funds were not released directly to the line agencies, Drilon said it was because the DAP was an off-budget item. It was sourced from savings or unused funds that were re-aligned to a stimulus fund.

Asked how the DBM determined how much each senator should receive, Drilon said it “depended on the needs” of each senator.

(To be continued)