Lawyers, groups, file reports vs P-Noy, senators over PDAF

BAGUIO CITY – President Benigno Aquino III and three other senators were accused by lawyers and members of left-leaning groups Monday of taking people's funds for their own pockets in incident reports they filed here at the city police station.

Lawyer-artist Jose Olarte, a former Bureau of Internal Revenue official, said like common thieves, the president, his cohorts in Malacañang and Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla, Jr. took people's money in various forms, either through the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or the pork barrel funds.

"We are the victims here," Olarte, who represents the Artists Kontra Korapsyon (AKKsyonBaguio) told policemen receiving their complaints.

Lawyers also from the National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) and Bayan Muna Party List Rep. Carlos Zarate filed their similar complaints before the police.

NUPL Baguio-Benguet chapter Chairman Kissack Gabaen, Cherryl Daytec and Bayan Muna Rep. Zarate with Perry Mendoza of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Metro Baguio and Cordillera Human Rights Alliance Deputy Secretary General Audrey Beltran filled up incident report forms at the police’s central business district station.

Rep. Zarate accused President Aquino, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Department of Budget Management Secretary Butch Abad of realigning and disbursing funds under DAP to projects not identified under the General Appropriations Act.

Gabaen, Mendoza and Beltran accused senators Enrile, Revilla and Estrada and President Aquino for grand larceny or syndicated theft for deliberate plunder by allegedly converting more than P50 million people’s and government’s money into their personal funds through their connivance with businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

Olarte said the “act is clearly unconditional and detrimental to the interest of the Filipino people,” while Gabaen said that it is a continuous crime where an unlawful act takes place through a continuous and uninterrupted length of time.

Zarate said their complaint is a symbolic act representing the clamor of the Filipino people to hold the government officials involved in the pork barrel scam responsible for stealing the money of the government raised from the taxes of the people while the delivery of social services and poverty are getting worse.  

“We would not know if where this will lead to, but this is a test to the administration and the police. If common thieves are placed right away on blotters after someone complains, then they are thieves in government who must also be treated the same way.”

Zarate said they hope that the symbolic action reaches Malacanang and delivers the message to the people in the palace and in the government to scrap the pork barrel system.