DAR chief denies saying Abad endorsed senators' DAP projects

MANILA, Philippines - Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes on Monday denied that Department of Budget and Management chief Butch Abad asked him to accommodate the requests of several senators for the release of their funds from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Delos Reyes made the denial due to news reports quoting him as saying that Abad asked him to accommodate the requests of several senators to course their DAP funds through the DAR to non-government organizations that have been identified with busineswoman Janet Napoles, the alleged mastermind in the pork barrel fund scam.

The DAR chief was reported to have pointed to Abad as having intervened for the senators to have their DAP funds channeled through DAR and released to bogus NGOs that they named.

Delos Reyes said that contrary to what was reported, it was in fact Abad who questioned why the funds were being channeled to DAR when the DBM had just approved the release of funds for the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Service.

He said that due to Abad's queries, the DAR insisted that regardless of the source of funds, these would all go through the regular processes, which he described as project proposals and the guidelines set in the procurement law.

These projects would also be subject to evaluation and assessment to ascertain the actual need of the project beneficiary and the viability of the project.

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"I have always insisted that all the funds that pass through our office should follow the regular processes and subject to evaluation and bidding. That is why, I suppose, they were taken out of DAR and transferred to another agency,"" Delos Reyes added.

Napoles has been tagged by whistleblowers, including his relative Benhur Luy, as the P10 billion pork barrel scam's mastermnind.

She is now detained in a police camp at Fort Sto. Domingo, Sta. Rosa, Laguna for the illegal detention case before the Makati City court, filed by Luy.

Source: philstar.com - Nation