UNA claims: P1B DAP possibly given to one senator

|UNA Sec. General Toby Tiangco (Wikipedia photo/ Bong Mendoza)

MANILA – The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) recently claimed to have received information that one senator allegedly received P1 billion from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). As such, the group has repeated its plea to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad for the disclosure of all details and documents relevant to the case.

UNA secretary general Toby Tiangco said in a statement addressed to the Department of Budget and Management: “We want to verify the information we received that one senator reportedly got over P1 billion from DAP. That’s why it is important that the listSec. Abad will be presenting anytime this month before the finance committee should reflect every peso requested by lawmakers.”

Abad had earlier promised to “go back to the letters sent by legislators to determine the particular projects nominated by each legislator,” but added that “it would take time to match” the recommendation letters of lawmakers who received the DAP, considering that not all lawmakers’ requests have been entertained.

Tiangco pointed out that “Sec. Abad should be able to submit all the letter-requests of legislators with all the necessary details.” He likewise voiced his misgivings that Abad may “sanitize” the list to be revealed to the public if the original copies of letter requests from lawmakers are not disclosed with said list.

“Since the letters are the basis for determining the nature and amounts of the projects that went to each legislator, kindly include ALL of the letter-requests sent by each legislator,” he said.