Anakpawis wants Butch Abad to account for pork barrel mess

MANILA — Party-list group Anakpawis today said that the Disbursement Acceleration Program and the Priority Development Assistance Fund mastermind budget secretary Butch Abad should be put in jail and not as an official of the next administration.

“We don’t want Abad going around freely with the next administration as if billions of public funds were not plundered through DAP and pork barrel. We should always take note that these funds were supposed to serve the welfare of poor Filipinos and not for the pockets of the Aquino clique,” said Anakpawis party-list Fernando Hicap in a statement.

Hicap added that the next president, hopefully not Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas, should not let Abad and his accomplices off the hook. If Roxas succeeds Aquino, the heinous crimes such as plunder of public funds, against the Filipino people would be left unpunished, hence would continue to proliferate.

Plunder raps was filed against Abad by various groups including the Kilu-sang Magbubukid ng Pilipi-nas, Kabataan party list and Philconsa in the Office of the Ombudsman over the DAP and PDAF scheme.

“Corruption remains a critical issue in the coming election; as Aquino has capitalized on this agenda during his presidential campaign, likewise it has hounded his administration, and would his anointed Roxas,” Hicap said.

Anakpawis said that Roxas’ presidential bid would only serve as an “extension” of Aquino’s alleged “daang matuwid” rule, that is for the Filipino poor, worsening landlessness and displacement, low, inhumane wages, systematic demolition of urban poor communities. The group said that Aquino’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and other neo-liberal policies such as privatization, deregulation and liberalization are all on Roxas’ platform that threatens the welfare of the Filipino poor. (cc)