Former Cebu City congressman Tomas Osmeña’s argument that the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) isn’t immoral will certainly be bought by his supporters and supporters of the Aquino administration, but it won’t hold water with diehard opponents of the pork barrel.
“Give me some consideration. I was a neophyte congressman but I got millions worth of projects for the city,” said Osmeña, the former Cebu City mayor who is said to have received P33 million from the Palace for his city projects.
Other Cebuano legislators who received a share in the DAP were former 2nd District Rep. Pablo Garcia and former lawmakers Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district and Cutie del Mar of Cebu City’s north district with P10 million each.
While they may receive their fair share of criticisms and perhaps even be required to present a full accounting of whatever projects their DAP share funded, the numbers obviously would place the burden of proof on Osmeña, who’s identified closely with the Palace.
The former congressman is asking the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide him details on where the P33 million went and even then, he’s not condemning the DAP.
In fact, Osmeña is justifying the DAP by saying that plowing back the savings of government agencies for use in next year’s budget would take time and the program is the DBM’s way of expediting the process.
As a former mayor, Osmeña knows where he speaks from, though he’s more into enacting a “skin and bones” budget in the last years of his term and Aquino couldn’t afford to use that approach especially when he has a much bigger constituency to take care of.
Did the P33 million go to funding projects outside of Cebu City? Only the DBM can answer that, though due to the animosity between Osmeña and Rama, it won’t be surprising if it did.
If it did, it would only provide further fuel to Rama’s ammunition against his former mentor and whoever he would face off in the 2016 elections. That amount would probably go to finance the study of the city’s rivers and how to properly manage them.
The P33 million may have also funded whatever beautification projects the mayor may have in mind or at least helped cover the cash assistance program of the seniors, high school or college scholars and even the persons with disabilities.
But more than that, the P33 million would have been identified and given full accounting by city officials to assure the city’s constituents that their taxes are going somewhere beneficial for them.
As it is, Cebu City residents shouldn’t hold their breath in waiting for a full accounting from DBM.