By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
THE speech of President Aquino during 75th anniversary of the Department of Budget and Management on April 25, 2011 has become relevant amid the controversy generated by the Disbursement Accelerated Program or DAP, the brainchild of Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad that got unqualified support from President Aquino.
This is what Aquino said:
“Paano ho ba natin uumpisahan ito? With your permission, Butch: Si Butch ho kasi, campaign manager ko in two occasions already. And ‘yung kanyang marketing ploy po … para mapakita sa inyo kung gaano ka-creative iyong ating kalihim: Sabi niya kailangang pagusapan ho. Eh wala naman ho kaming pondo. Alam niyo, simula noong napasok ako sa gubyerno, ang litanya ho sa akin,’walang pera.’ Ngayon nalang po na Secretary si Butch Abad, ‘pag natanong ko, ‘Butch, may pera ba tayo?’ Mayroon. Basta sinabi niya, mayroon tayo niyan.
“ Aba, iba nga talaga tono ngayon. So noong araw noong tayo’y nasa oposisyon at walang pera, nagisip siya ng paraan, paano ba ako ipakikilala sa taumbayan? So ang ginawa po niya, mayroon pong isang sikat na artistang mangangawit, at awa ng Diyos po ay naging laman kami ng mga ilang tabloid at diyaryo na hindi bababa ng walong buwan. Ako po’y nagtataka, dahil minsan ko lang ho nakilala sa buong buhay ko itong itinutukoy na singer, ay kinalabasan lahat raw ho ng concert pinanood ko, parang nagkakaigihan kami. Basta, walong buwan ho tumatakbo iyan, at ako’y nagtataka na talaga, paano pahahabain ang istorya na walang laman? At noong natapos po—hindi pa ho ako tumatakbo noong panahon na iyon—natuklasan ko kung paano ‘yung pamamaraan. ‘Di umano’y, at wala po akong kinalaman doon, nagpapadala ng bulaklak ang mga … kaibigan nalang … ni Secretary Abad doon sa babaeng kinaukulan. At tinanggap naman po. At kada bigay niya ng bulaklak, dagdag nanaman ng istorya doon sa aming paguugnayan na hindi naman po nangyari talaga.
“Sabi ko, ‘Butch, ang galing mo gumawa ng fiction, dapat naging manunulat ka nalang.’ (“Butch has been my campaign manager on two occasions already. To show you how creative he is… before, when I was in the opposition and without money, he thought up a way to make me known to the people. What he did was, there was this famous singer-actress who made it possible for me to be in the newspapers for about eight months. I was surprised, because I had met this woman only once and Butch Abad made it appear like I attended all her concerts and that we had a thing going. For eight months, that story ran, and I was wondering how a story with nothing to it could run that long. Later I learned that friends of Butch Abad had been sending the woman flowers, which she always accepted. And every time flowers were sent, the story about our affair kept going even if nothing really happened.
“I said, Butch, you’re so good at inventing fiction, you should have been a writer.”)
The Senate hearing last week showed that Abad’s genius is not limited to creating fiction. He is a ruthless master operator.
The Supreme Court has declared DAP unconstitutional.
So what does Abad do to save himself and Aquino? Drag in everybody including the President’s mother, the late President Cory Aquino.
In his statement at the Senate hearing, Abad said, “Under the leadership of then-President Cory Aquino, the use of savings took the form of the imposition of reserves, where allocations were withheld because of a fiscal deficit; the practice was thus named the Reserve Control Account. This way of using savings continued on in the Ramos and Estrada administrations.”
Former President Joseph Estrada’s budget secretary Benjamin Diokno slammed Abad and Sen. Franklin Drilon saying they were “misleading the people.”
Granting that past administrations had their version of the unconstitutional DAP, practice does not make a wrong thing right. Besides, people voted for Aquino because he promised “reforms”, not a continuation past practices.
President Cory Aquino’s Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo scored PNoy for allowing Abad to do use his mother’s name in vain:“They’re saying that Cory did DAP during her term just to emphasize that they did no wrong. They’re dragging the good name of Cory..I want to ask President Noynoy, what has happened to you to even allow that?
The Senate hearing on DAP was a showcase of the program’s destructive effect. With majority of senators being DAP beneficiaries topped by Franklin Drilon with P100 million, they were either docile in questioning or they served as advisers and lawyers for Malacañang.
Lawyer Harry Roque, counsel for petitioners against DAP, lamented: “it is sad that the Senate abdicated its oversight functions and opted to be a spin doctor for Malacañang. A subservient Senate is a threat to democracy,”
