Duterte tags Aquino, Trillanes, and others on DAP anomaly

(Wikipedia photo)

In a press conference in Cagayan de Oro yesterday, President Duterte said that he will expose all individuals who had allegedly benefitted from the controversial disbursement acceleration program (DAP).

He called out on former President Benigno Aquino III who had been recently acquitted from a complaint filed by party-list groups while convicting his budget secretary Florencio Abad.  He also called on Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who has been one of his critics as one of the beneficiaries of the controversial government funding scheme.

He challenged the media to look further into the DAP scheme and claimed that Abad, Aquino, and many others had taken advantage of the scheme despite the Supreme Court ruling of 2014 declaring it as unconstitutional.

The Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was a “special” budget allocation scheme where government funds can be released and allocated without approval from either Congress or Senate. It was instituted prior to the discovery of the pork barrel scam in 2013 which involved Janet Lim-Napoles and other high-profile government officials.

Meanwhile, Senator Trillanes responded to Duterte, insisting that he had properly allocated his funds and had everything recorded. He also urged the President to provide evidence that he had misallocated his funds.