Sen. Manny Pacquiao on Thursday formally called for a Senate inquiry into alleged corruption in the distribution of COVID-19 cash aid, which he exposed following a dare from President Rodrigo Duterte.
Pacquiao filed Senate Resolution 779 directing the appropriate Senate committee to investigate the allegedly missing P10.4-billion fund allocated for the government's social amelioration program or SAP.
The funds were supposedly disbursed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development through mobile wallet app Starpay.
According to Pacquiao, only 500,000 of the 1.8 million target beneficiaries were able to download the Starpay app, which meant that 1.3 million were not able to get their aid even though government records showed that they got the cash assistance.
"There is an urgent need to look into this anomaly to untangle the web of corruption involving DSWD and Starpay which has robbed our people of economic resources and denuded the government of its basic capacity to provide a lifeline to the vulnerable segment of the society that has been hit the hardest by the current pandemic," he said in the resolution.
Duterte tasked Pacquiao to prove his claims of corruption in the bureaucracy or risk getting exposed as a "liar".
Sen. Richard Gordon, who chairs the Senate blue ribbon committee that investigates wrongdoings in the government, said he needed to see the details of Pacquiao's corruption allegations before he opens an investigation.
DSWD Sec. Rolando Bautista, meanwhile, denied Pacquiao's allegations, saying that all funds used in the social amelioration program are supported by liquidation reports. The department is also ready to face investigation on the matter, he added.
