When the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) issue peaked in 2015, Senator Nancy Binay questioned Senator Antonio Trillanes IV back in April 2015 over the latter’s Php 245 million DAP funds allocated to him from 2011 to 2012.
Trillanes’ DAP funds were even higher than the other senators that time prompting Binay to say “I am wondering if Trillanes is a favorite of Abad of the DBM.”
Florencio Abad was the Budget Secretary at that time who was accused of having appropriated unconstitutional DAP funds to various politicians during the Aquino administration.
In Trillanes’ case, Binay had asked that “maybe it’s better that he does the explaining and show where the P245-million DAP went in a span of just one year.”
Trillanes replied that all his DAP or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) were all poured into the projects he posted in his website.
Documents from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) revealed that DAP funds amounting to Php 245 million were under Trillanes’ name.
Binay said the P245 million given to Trillanes came in three tranches – the allocations were different from the P200-million annual PDAF for each senator.
Trillanes defended himself saying that he received the DAP and PDAF funds back when they were not yet unconstitutional.
“All of these were audited by COA and they did not see any negative findings,” Trillanes claimed.
Source: Philstar