SEN. Ronald Dela Rosa on Tuesday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prevent candidates from using government aid programs for the poor to woo voters in the May midterm elections.
He added that the distribution of AKAP (Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program) and other government social aid programs should be handled solely by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), not politicians.
“If only the politicians were completely out of the picture, allowing the DSWD to handle the distribution — this is government money, the people’s money. It should be given directly to the people without any politicians intervening. That would be ideal,” the senator said in Filipino.
Commenting on the reported P5 billion AKAP funds to be distributed by senators, Dela Rosa said, “I will tell the Senate leadership to give it to other senators. Just leave me out.”
Dela Rosa was among the senators who questioned the allocation of AKAP in the national budget. Doubts on the program’s purpose were first raised during a Senate investigation when it was found that it was not the DSWD that proposed the initiative.
“That’s essentially vote buying. What else could we conclude? The House of Representatives is doing this for their benefit, for whatever purposes they have in mind, while the DSWD is left to implement it,” he said.
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