A trio of ongoing corruption scandals from mid-2013 are behind the erosion of popular faith in Aquino's anti-corruption credentials. As Renato Cruz de Castro mother of all scams " linked to the illegal use of public funds by noted, the politicians through the unconstitutional Priority Development Assistance Fund(PDAF) dominated national media coverage from July 2013,' In 2014, this rolling scandal led to the filing of graft charges against and incarceration of three leading opposition senators, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Bong' Revilla Jr. The fact that only three opposition leaders have been arrested despite the majority of senators and representatives benefiting from this dismantled pork barrel scheme led to widespread accusations of selective justice favouring the administration and hurting the opposition led by Vice-President Jejomar Binay, the country's most popular and trusted politician.
This scam in 2013 was overtaken in 2014 by the Disbursement Acceleration Programme(DAP) scandal that saw the Supreme Court rule as unconstitutional the Aquino administration budget reallocation scheme masterminded by Budget Secretary Florencio'Butch Abad. In its two years of existence, the programme was responsible for the reallocation of close to 180 billion pesos(US$4.08 billion) of government funds without congressional approval, much of which government employee bodies claimed came from funds for their benefits and pensions.