Daang panay kupit

Sen. Richard Gordon pointed to a habit or a pattern among members of the yellow “Daang Matuwid” (Straight Path) circle during the term of former President Noynoy Aquino in his assessment of the Ombudsman’s usurpation of legislative power decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) scandal.

The repeated practice of dipping their hands into the budget proves that what they practised warrant a slogan of “Daang Panay Kupit” (Path to Pilferage).

The complaint against Noynoy and his former Budget Secretary Butch Abad among other officials involved in the DAP was for at least malversation of public funds to plunder, at most, considering the P150 billion to P200 billion funds in the budget that went in the money pool called the presidential pork barrel.

Gordon noted a similar pattern in the P3.5 billion Dengvaxia vaccine mess and the P10.6-billion PhilHealth funds allotted for senior citizens diverted to the building of barangay health stations that nearly turned out as substandard or totally unused.

The practice was all DAP-like in terms of Noynoy and Abad assuming the functions of Congress in appropriating funds.

The Supreme Court in a 2014 decision ruled as unconstitutional Executive acts in creating the DAP which are the withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies, and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as saving prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) (the budget); the cross-border transfers of the savings of the Executive to augment the appropriations of other offices outside the Executive, and the funding of projects, activities and programs that were not covered by any appropriation in the GAA.

“We all can see the effort to maneuver the funds from the budget. They thought they could get away with it,” he said.

Gordon questioned the Ombudsman appearing oblivious of the pattern in the light charges it imposed on Noynoy.

“It goes into habit, which is why they should file a bigger case. Because in Dengvaxia they did the same, they transferred money. Then in the PhilHealth case, again they transferred money for purposes other than what it was intended for. So there is that habit and that’s considered aggravating,” he said.

In the PhilHealth funds misuse, former PhilHealth chief Alexander Padilla wrote the Department of Budget to allow them to use P10.6-billion unprogrammed appropriations for the construction of barangay health stations.

Gordon had noted the projects cited in the diversion of funds from the budget had no immediate purpose.

The Dengvaxia purchase was made in an apparent rush when there was no dengue epidemic.

The rush happened after Noynoy met with Sanofi Pasteur executives on December 1.

Abad suggested savings from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) be used for the Dengvaxia purchases since the MPBF would revert to the treasury after the end of each year.

Abad claimed the realignment was allowed since what was augmented was the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI), yet the Dengvaxia purchases were not part of the EPI.

Gordon said a total of P14.5 billion worth of MPBF was declared as savings in 2015 for use in projects of various agencies, including the EPI.

Noynoy said the choice was to implement the program or wait for at least a year and expose the public to the risk of contracting dengue.

The MPBF was also a favorite source of DAP funds diversion.

Amid the clear intent of the previous administration to willfully manipulate the budget, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales should have taken off her yellow blinders.

The acts of Noynoy and Abad were clearly not mere usurpation of legislative powers.