Robin Padilla to Drilon: Resign!

MANILA, Philippines –  Robin Padilla is mad. And he showed it on Instagram.

In an Instagram post on Monday, September 30, the actor featured a graphics of Senate President Franklin Drilon as a “pig and politician crossbreeding.” He called on Drilon to show delicadeza and resign to “face trial by the children of the nation.”

The actor was reacting to reports that Drilon admitted receiving P100 million from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of the Department of Budget and Management after the conviction of former Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012.

In his caption, Padilla wrote: “Ang dating DOJ secretary na nagpakulong sa akin dahil sa salang Kayabangan at pagiging mapusok. Ngayon senador ipakita mo sa mga kabataang Pilipino ang delikadeza at karangalan na inyong sinumpaan kasama ng inyong tungkulin bilang boses at amain ng Inangbayan bilang pinakapinuno ng mataas na kapulungan hinihingi ng Mapayapang Rebolosyon ang inyong pagbibitiw at harapin ang paglilitis ng mga Anak ng Bayan. Oras na para sa tunay na pagbabago at pagkapilipino.”

(The former Justice secretary who sent me to jail for arrogance and recklessness. Now senator, show the Filipino youth your delicadeza and honor that you vowed along with your duty to be a voice and father of the nation as a leader of the Senate. The Peaceful Revolution asks of you to resign and face trial by the children of the nation. It is time for genuine change and patriotism.)

Drilon was justice secretary during the Fidel V Ramos and Cory Aquino administrations.

In a statement on Tuesday, October 1, Drilon said he’s not resigning. He said “there was nothing wrong, illegal and immoral” when he admitted receiving P100 million from the DAP of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

“I think Padilla got it all wrong,” Drilon said.  “It’s not like I pocketed P100 million in kickbacks. The DAP allocation is not cold cash and but was merely a list of infrastructure projects recommended by legislators and local government officials to be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways.”

Drilon admitted receiving the DAP after Sen Jinggoy Estrada delivered a privilege speech saying Drilon facilitated the release of P50 million supposedly for each senator who voted to convict Corona.

READ: Jinggoy: P50M for each convict-Corona vote

DBM Secretary Florencio Abad later revealed allocating P50 million each for 20 senators in 2012 and early 2013. The amount though was bigger for Drilon (who got P100 million), Sen Juan Ponce Enrile (P92 million) and Sen Francis Escudero (P99 million). 

READ: 2012 fund releases to pols not a bribe – Abad

Drilon has explained that he requested for the P100 million DAP funds for infrastructure projects in Iloilo City to boost its bid to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting in 2015.

‘I did not admit committing crime’

“That I admitted receiving P100 million in DAP funds was not like I admitted committing a crime. On the contrary, I was only doing my role in helping prime the economy that was needed at that time.”

Drilon decried what he called “a deliberate attempt to muddle the issue” on the DAP and link it to the pork barrel scam to implicate allies of President Benigno Aquino III.

“I can account for every peso that I received and I do not have a history of malfeasance and misuse of government funds. I am sure that that not a single centavo was channeled to bogus non-governmental organizations linked to Janet Lim Napoles,” Drilon said.

He defended the DAP amid criticism from former Sen Joker Arroyo and Sen Miriam Defensor Santiago, who called the program a crime and illegal for lacking legal basis.

READ: Palace spending program ‘illegal’

Drilon said the DAP was a “regular budgetary process in government” meant to boost the spending capacity of the government. He said it was created in the last quarter of 2011 to address underspending by the Aquino administration blamed for the slow economic growth.

He echoed Malacañang in saying that even the local government units and government owned and controlled corporations also got funds from DAP to boost spending.

Despite statements from Drilon and the Palace, the opposition said these were just excuses to cover up the alleged bribery during the Corona impeachment trial. Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco, secretary-general of the United Nationalist Alliance, said in a statement that the DAP release was “a Corona stimulus fund.” –  with a report from Ayee Macaraig/Rappler.com