Fresh complaint vs. PNoy, Abad filed over DAP, PDAF ‘misuse’

(Updated 2:48 p.m.) Another complaint was filed Friday against President Benigno Aquino III over the Department of Agriculture’s alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of several lawmakers and as well as the executive branch’s funds under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

The latest complaint was filed by former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief and presidential aspirant Augusto Syjuco Jr., who also filed a complaint against Aquino and Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad last week. 

“This Complaint for Investigation focuses on BS Aquino’s sins in the agricultural sector, which our poor farmers continue to bear inabject destitution and economic bondage,” Syjuco said in his six-page complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Also named respondents in the complaint were Abad, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Senate President Franklin Drilon and “other John and Jane Does, who are liable for the stated malfeasances.”

 

On Friday last week, Syjuco also filed a complaint against Aquino, Abad and Drilon over their alleged misuse of PDAF and DAP funds, the existence of which was already declared partly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. He said, there "has been no comprehensive auditing of these DAP funds. Nor has there been a termination of the DAP Program," alleging that "total funds mis-spent" may have totaled to at least P144 billion.

 

Just like in his complaint filed last week, Syjuco, a former Iloilo representative, reiterated his allegation that the Aquino administration, for the last six years, spent PDAF amounting to P220 billion and DAP amounting to P157 billion, for a total of P377 billion.

 

“As I have repeatedly said before, again and again, ad nauseam, Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, herein referred as BS Aquino for brevity, is the biggest and most prominent usurper of pork barrel,” Syjuco said in his complaint.


New complaint

 

In his new complaint, Syjuco said that aside from Aquino’s alleged misuse of his own DAP funds, the president and the other respondents must also be held liable for the DA’s alleged misuse of DAP funds as well as the PDAF of several lawmakers.

 

Syjuco said that based on a series of annual audit reports (AARs) by the Commission on Audit (COA) regarding the use of PDAF and DAP by various government agencies, the DA “squandered” a total of P14.4 billion DAP and PDAF funds on questionable programs and projects.

 

“According to COA, the DA likely misused about P14.4 billion of its public funds on questionable programs and project…Many of these projects, which included construction of farm-to-market roads, credit financing for livestock sector and financial assistance for the cultivation of commercial crops, were left incomplete or lacked necessary documents,” Syjuco said.

 

Syjuco specifically cited that based on the COA’s ARRs, P235-million worth of PDAF from seven lawmakers was allegedly misused by DA’s attached agency the National Livelihood and Development Corporation (NLDC) by allocating the funds to four alleged fake non-government organizations (NGOs) linked with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

 

Syjuco said another attached agency of the DA, the National Agriculture and Fisheries Council (NAFC), meanwhile, has allegedly misused P199.4 million worth of PDAF of several lawmakers from 2012 to 2013 by also allocating the funds supposed to be for livelihood projects to the Napoles-linked NGOs as well as to an NGO of another businessman Godofredo Roque.

 

“In its annual audit report of the NAFC, COA said projects under the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) were implemented without bidding and proof that the recipients benefitted from livelihood projects involving vegetables and earthworms,” Syjuco said.

 

Syjuco said another DA attached agency, the National Agribusiness Corporation (NABCOR), allegedly misused a total of P5-million worth of DAP and PDAF funds for various supposed livelihood projects “despite absence of progress and status reports on [their] implementation…and non-compliance with pertinent laws and regulations in the awarding of contracts to the NGOs/POs (private organizations)”.

 

“In sum, DA squandered P14.4 billion in public fund including DAP and PDAF funds,” Syjuco said.

 

Syjuco said that the COA had earlier demanded DA to liquidate the expenditures and balances of the questioned disbursed funds “but up to this time, no liquidation of these projects were ever provided by the DA.”

 

“The implementation of the objectives of the projects were inefficient and ineffective…due to the deficiencies in the implementation of the projects,” Syjuco said, quoting the COA report.

Not due to elections

 

Syjuco has recently filed his certificate of candidacy for president in the 2016 elections, but he was among over a hundred presidential aspirants ordered by the Commission on Elections to explain in writing why they should not be declared a “nuisance candidate.”

 

Syjuco’s new complaint served as the third complaint against Aquino filed before the Ombudsman over the DAP and PDAF controversy.

This is the 26th complaint Syjuco has filed in relation to the PDAF and DAP. 

 

Late last month, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales approved further investigation on a report from the anti-graft body's Field Investigation Office, which recommended the filing of technical malversation and administrative charges against Abad and DBM Undersecretary Mario Relampagos for the allegedly irregular release of almost P400 million from DAP between 2011 and 2012. 

 

The anti-graft body dropped Aquino from the probe after fact-finding investigators determined that the charges against him do not amount to impeachable offense. —RSJ/KG, GMA News