The Supreme Court of the Philippines junks bid to probe the outgoing Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III on his involvement with the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) nd the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The petition was dimissed that sought to compel the Ombudsman to investigate the case against Pres. Aquino.
Losing senatorial candidate Greco Belgica, filed the petition against the outgoing President last August 2015 but the decision was only released on Tuesday by the Supreme Court.
Based upon the Supreme Court’s order they declared that “the acts compelled by petitioners are not ministerial acts but discretionary acts.”
The petitioners namely Greco Belgica and the President’s own aunt, Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco had argued on their petition that since the Supreme Court had declared the DAP and PDAF unconstitutional, government officials who were behind their misuse must be investigated and charged by the Ombudsman.
During the Aquino administration the DAP consisted of government funds moved from department to department supposedly for need. The controversial PDAF or pork barrel are discretionary funds given to lawmakers fr the supposed project of their constituents but vast amounts of funds were discovered to have illegally ended up in official’s pockets.
The reasons why the petition was junked against Pres. Aquino, because according to the Supreme Court, the investigations would only be issued on grounds of:
A clear legal right to the act demanded existed;
Respondent had a duty to perform the act because it was mandated by law;
Respondent unlawfully neglected the performance of such duty required by law;
The act performed was ministerial, not discretionary;
There was no other plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.
“None of these elements exist and thus mandamus does not lie and the petitioners are not entitled to the relief sought,” the Supreme Court ruled.
