President Aquino is confident that he would not rot in jail for the implementation of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) even though it was partly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The President insisted that he has not broken any law or abused government funds, unlike his two predecessors who faced corruption charges when they stepped down from office.
“Besides the fact that we served in this office, yun lang ang similarity yata namin,” Aquino said in a recent television interview about former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo.
“The fate that befell them why should it befall me if i didn’t do that which they were either accused or convicted of,” he added.
The President affirmed that he is ready for any lawsuit that may be filed against him when he ends his six-year term at the end of the month.
“I’ll wait na lang. If anybody decides to file, we are ready to respond,” he said during th “24Oras” interview last Wednesday night.
Aquino insisted that the spending program, which diverted government savings to other projects to boost economic growth, benefited many Filipinos.
“Ang bottomline nun, nakatulong sa kababayan natn at yun naman ang silbi ng gobyerno. Paano dapat magiging mali yun?” he said. “That has been practiced previous to us. They called it by different name,” he added.
Incoming Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre earlier bared plans to probe certain officials over unconstitutional acts committed under the controversial DAP.
Aguirre said presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte directed him to apply the law equally and file charges regardless of the power or influence of the persons involved.
Reacting to the planned probe on DAP, the Palace said President Aquino faithfully followed the Constitution and the laws of the land. Even though the DAP was declared largely unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said there was presumption of regularity in the actions of the government. (GENALYN KABILING)