The use of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) to fund flagship projects in Iloilo worth a total of P720 million of Senate President Franklin Drilon only proves that the Palace money pool was used mainly as a political largesse for allies of President Aquino. A review of the DAP-funded projects list provided by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed that the DAP funded P450 million for the Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project, P100 million for the construction of the Iloilo convention center and P170 million for the relocation of riverside squatters of Iloilo City, all pet projects of Drilon. Added up, Drilon received from DAP a sum equivalent exceeding his three-year Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation of P600 million. A source said if other DAP releases to the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), two laundering machines through which bribes to congressmen and senators were coursed, will be unbundled, chances are funds were diverted to Drilon’s kingdom as well. The source said on Dec. 12, 2011 when former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona was hastily impeached by the House, Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad dispatched an urgent 12-page memorandum to President Aquino, listing P13.38 billion worth of projects to be funded under DAP, and for which he was seeking presidential approval. The projects were mostly packages, meaning they were national in scope such as “Payment of Right-of-Way Claims Nationwide” for which P719 million was requested and the annexes did not explain in detail the specific projects, except for a request for P450 million for the Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project in Iloilo province, the source said. The Jalaur project, whose centerpiece is-a dam which critics assail not only sits atop a seismic fault but covers a biodiversity-rich forest, prompting the Supreme Court to issue a writ of Kalikasan, is a pet project of Drilon who, to his credit, had never shied in bragging that indeed it is his. Drilon may deny that he had a hand in the release of the P450 million. He could claim otherwise that it was a unilateral executive action. But less than a month after Abad sent that memo, and 14 days after President Aquino approved it on Dec. 21, 2011, Drilon, issued a press statement in the middle of a Senate recess, on January 4, 2012, boasting “that President Noynoy Aquino ordered the release of an initial P450 million to finance the engineering design and other initial works of the project.” Drilon went on to brag, as if he were the head of the bids and awards committee, that “construction of the P11.2 billion Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project-Stage II (JRMP 11) which will start this month” and will employ 17,000 workers. “This bluster, however, does not fly, on many counts. One, the P450 million , as Drilon himself claimed in his praise release will be mainly for the drafting of the engineering design, a table- top exercise which is not labor-intensive. Second, there is no way , given the byzantine procurement rules in the government today, that an agency can prepare the project specs, advertise, bid, review m award, and issue a notice to proceed to the winning contractor for such a big-ticket project in less than a month,” the source said. The release of the P450 million DAP funding upon Drilon’s behest belies his claim that he got a mere PlOO million as lawyer’s fees for serving as a prosecutor while in judge’s robes during the Corona trial, the source added. In another statement dated July 8, 2014, Drilon said the only DAP money he got, P100 million, “went to the lloilo Convention Center,” adding, as if to add a seal of good housekeeping to that expenditure, “President Aquino III inspected (the project) last June 27.” But based on the records on DAP which are now slowly surfacing, Drilon apparently got more. “In addition to the P450 million Jalaur DAP release , which is seen as his acceptance lee in the Corona case, Drilon also received a chunk of the P11 billion in DAP funds released to the NHA on the strength of Aquino’s approval of yet another Abad request for the conversion of forced savings sequestered from agencies into the DAP pool. In a Memorandum for the President dated Oct. 12, 2011, Abad requested P11 billion to cover: the construction of in-city Medium Rise Buildings to provide shelter to 20,000 informal settler families living in danger areas (and contribute to flood mitigation efforts and clean up the 3 meter easement along Pasig River and its tributaries ); the construction of a Medium Rise Building in Camarin, Caloocan City to provide shelter to residents of North Triangle to pave the way for the QC Business District; and the construction of housing units to provide shelter to 4,000 informal dwellers along a 22-kilometers stretch of Iloilo River. “The last one is another legacy project of the highest Ilonggo official in the land today,” the source said. “Try Googling articles about lloilo River and what would come up are articles and public records which show beyond doubt that Drilon is not just the prime financier of this undertaking but its hands-on capataz as well,” the source added. For example, while Abad’s request did not break down Iloilo River’s share of the Pll billion that he was asking for NHA, a news article with Drilon as bida will give us an inkling o how much went to it. A March 31, 2014 news report quoted “a pissed off Ilonggo Senate president” as “ordering GB Legaspi Construction to finish the construction of 1.000 housing units” meant for relocated lloilo River dwellers. The cost of the project, according to the news dispatch, is P170.3 million. This could be the minimum share of Drilon from the Pll billion release. If the latter is spent equally among the affected informal settlers, then Iloilo’s share would easily be PI billion at the minimum. At Thursday’s Senate hearing on the DAP, Drilon did not question Abad but helped him defend what the Supreme Court declared as mostly unconstitutional funding mechanism. Drilon also described the Senate hearing as unlike the PDAF scam hearing because he said it was not about shedding light on a case of malfeasance. He expounded also on the legal excuse cited by Aquino and Abad. Ahead of the Supreme Court decision on the motion for reconsideration filed by Malacañang on the ruling that struck down salient points of DAP, Drilon said the Administrative Code used as basis for DAP is the Congress’ interpretation of how public funds (and “savings”) are to be used. Drilon also claimed that legislators only “nominated” or proposed projects for DAP funding, which Sec. Abad confirmed. In a statement, Kabataan Partylist Rep. Terry Ridon said what Drilon did at the Senate hearing “only establishes the fact that DAP was created and executed by none other than the Executive Department.” By law it should have been the Congress appropriating funds. How the Senate President acted did not surprise the anti-pork legislators or environmentalists. According to Ridon, “Of course, Drilon would defend DAP to the best of his abilities. He, after all, snagged P450 million ($10.39 M) for Jalaur Dam through DAP, without it having to pass through General Appropriations Act (GAA).” A day after the Senate hearing on Aquino’s defense of DAP, 17 environmental groups launched an alliance supporting moves to impeach Aquino over his “repeated abuse of the unconstitutional presidential pork barrel.” The environmental groups highlighted in particular the P450-million ($10.39 M) allocated to the controversial Jalaur Mega Dam project in Iloilo through public funds collected by the budget department under DAP. “The DAP was used by Pres. Aquino to accelerate the construction of the P11.2-billion ($285.54 M) Jalaur Mega Dam despite various studies warning of its adverse impacts to indigenous communities, lowland communities and the environment,“ said Leon Dulce, spokesperson of the newly formed Environmental Network against Pork Barrel and Corruption (ENAP Corruption!). The said project has long been opposed by the indigenous communities grouped under TUMANDUK (Indigenous Farmers in Defense of Land and Life) whose land would be inundated. Another part of their land is now being used as military reservation because soldiers were deployed allegedly to protect the project. Until today, legal cases hound the project. On top of having been partly funded in an unconstitutional manner, it is also marked by anomalies in its implementation so far, based on the sharing of former Iloilo 2nd district Rep. Augusto Syjuco, TUMANDUK, lawyer Chyt Daytec of NUPL and Hope Hervilla of Jalaur River for the People Movement. “Funding came even before the approval of the project,” former congressman Syjuco said in a press conference held by Kalikasan last week. Syjuco said Drilon himself arranged for the signing of the loan agreement between the South Korean representative and the Philippine representative, witnessed by Aquino. “This administration wants it so badly to raise funds for next election,” Syjuco said. He alleged that in this project is an example of how Drilon has been making money for the past 30 years. “The Jalaur Dam is one of the pet projects, if not milking cows of Senate President Franklin Drilon, one of Aquino’s leading allies. It is no wonder Drilon was hell-bent on defending Budget Secretary Butch Abad in Thursday’s senate hearing,” said Dulce of newly formed ENAP Corruption!. The group wants Aquino impeached, saying he acted “in bad faith in using the DAP to fund an environmentally destructive project outside the approved General Appropriations Act (GAA).” Dulce said billions more of public funds allocated in Aquino’s various pork funds should be rechanneled instead to greater subsidies to environmental protection and climate resiliency. Just so the Jalaur dam project will push through, the process of securing approval for the project has been marked by deception and harassment, said Syjuco. Citing the demand of the Tumandok whom he described as an endangered species now, Syjuco had filed a petition for Writ of Kalikasan with the Supreme Court, which granted it last year Oct 31. But the dam project proponents continue to push for it, this time, with another dam project, bigger and more expensive, connected or integrated to the first. Lawyer Chyt Daytec of National Union of Peoples’ Lawyer (NUPL) said the P27-billion Jalaur II mega-dam project is to be financed by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). Daytec said the loans from JICA (and from Korean Eximbank, for that matter) are presented to Filipinos like a sweet deal, carrying interest rate of just a fourth of one percent. But considering the many strings attached, such as the condition that only Korean and Japanese contractors would be awarded the Jalaur I and Jalaur II dam construction projects, respectively, and given the length of time Filipinos would amortize it, Daytec said, Filipinos stand to lose a lot. These, on top of losing the lands and livelihoods and perhaps the lives of the Tumandok who seem to be regarded as if they do not exist on the lands to be occupied by the dam. Although a Writ of Kalikasan has been granted, investigation into the dam project is still ongoing leading to a decision whether it would be stopped permanently.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:13:15 +0000
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