Aquino named in fresh raps over DAP

A Duterte administration official on Monday filed a complaint against former president Benigno Aquino III for the alleged misuse of public funds to supposedly influence Congress members to unseat the late chief justice Renato Corona.

Representing the "Truth and Justice Coalition," Presidential Anti-Corruption Commissioner Greco Belgica sought the filing of charges for 274 counts of malversation against Aquino, former Budget secretary Florencio Abad, and former Interior secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Also named in the complaint were then-congressman Joseph Emilio Abaya, former Budget undersecretary Mario Relampagos, and Senators Franklin Drilon and Antonio Trillanes IV.

The Office of the Ombudsman in June indicted the former president and his former Budget chief for usurpation of legislative powers in connection with the DAP controversy.

The June indictment stemmed from a case on the alleged unlawful realignment of government savings by virtue of National Budget Circular (NBC) No. 541 to stimulate the economy during Aquino's presidency.

In his 61-page complaint, Belgica accused the respondents of "creat[ing] the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program)" and allegedly using parts of the fund for the purpose of "influenc[ing] the members of the House of Representatives and the members of the Senate to impeach and convict Chief Justice Corona."

GMA News Online has sought comment from Aquino's camp.

Corona was impeached in December 2011 and convicted by the Senate impeachment court in May 2012 of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution for allegedly not fully disclosing his wealth.

He died of cardiac arrest in 2016 at 67.

Two years later, his successor, Maria Lourdes Sereno, would be ousted by a majority Supreme Court decision for her alleged failure to file some mandatory asset declarations.

"The DAP was a premeditated scheme for respondents to divert and malverse the funds of the Government for the impeachment of CJ Corona," the complaint stated.

It alleged that an initial amount of P3.5 billion in DAP funds was pooled and allocated from October 25, 2011 to December 22, 2011 "to influence 124 members of Congress and 21 senators to ensure that the Chief Justice is impeached and found guilty of the charges."

"Now, as to whether the DAP allocated for the representatives and the senators were actually used for public purpose is immaterial in this complaint," the complaint stated.

"The main issue here is the misappropriation of public funds for illegal and unauthorized purpose which is to influence Congress in ousting the Chief Justice."

In 2014, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to strike down as unconstitutional a number of acts under the controversial DAP of the Aquino administration.

These acts included the withdrawal of unobligated allotments, declaration of these allotments as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year, and cross-border transfers of funds outside the executive branch. — BM, GMA News