Day: July 24, 2014

ALL POST-MARCOS Presidents have made use of a mechanism similar to the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that was declared partly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad told a Senate committee on Friday.

Interestingly, however, it was Senate President Franklin Drilon who did much of the explaining in behalf of Abad, his partymate.

Drilon made a powerpoint presentation where he showed that President Corazon Aquino had created what she called a reserve control account in 1989, from which she pooled savings to allocate to other projects. Drilon said that in 1989, the Cory government disbursed P17.5 billion from its reserve control account.

The practice was carried on by all Presidents since, with President Fidel Ramos disbursing P44 billion, President Joseph Estrada with P36.8 billion, and President Gloria Arroyo with P189.2 billion.

“This is equivalent to DAP,” Drilon said during the hearing. “Ganun din ang konsepto, iba lang ang tawag.”

Abad seconded Drilon’s opinion, saying that it was the practice then to declare an enforced savings of as much as 25 percent at the start of the fiscal year to offset the fiscal crisis.

“Itong mga account, iniimpound ang pera sa umpisa by as much as 25 percent,” Abad said. “Sa umpisa ng taon, may savings na nawithhold na.”

Drilon also sought to point out that cross border transfers of funds had been done by all administrations as well. For example, Drilon said that the Executive also transferred P7.39 billion to what was called Constitutionally Fiscally Autonomous Groups (CFAG), another name for constitutional bodies like the Commission on Audit, the Ombudsman, and the Commission on Elections. Drilon said more such transfers were done from 1996 to 2000.

The Supreme Court had ruled portions of DAP unconstitutional, including what it called cross border transfers of funds, or the use of savings to augment the budget of other branches of the government.

 

 

 

 

PRESIDENT BENIGNO S. AQUINO III himself personally approved all the 116 projects funded by the P144.38 billion in funds sourced from the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), Budget Secretary Florencio Abad told a senate committee on Thursday.

Abad told the Senate finance committee that the President had a personal hand in the approval of all DAP projects, and that the President gave the authority to consolidate savings under DAP.

The Supreme Court on July 1 declared certain parts of the DAP unconstitutional. In particular, the SC said it cannot allow the crossing over of funds to other branches of government, the withdrawal of funding for items already enrolled in the budget, and the transfer of these funds to items not in the budget.

“Ang bawat proyekto ng DAP ay binasbasan ng Pangulo,” Abad told the committee.

As for the SC ruling against cross border funding, Abad said there were only two instances when this occurred: for the eLibrary project of the House of Representatives, and the upgrade of the technical capability of the Commission on Audit.

Abad insisted that these incidents do not in anyway jeopardize the separation of powers, and that the funding of these projects were done “in the spirit of interdependence.”

Abad also said that these practices are not new, and that the Executive was shocked that the SC found it unconstitutional. For example, Abad said the Commission on Elections was the recipient of billions of pesos for the purchase of automated counting machines for the elections.

As well, Abad said they were shocked that the Supreme Court expected them to prove good faith on their part. Abad said this was worrisome for the bureaucracy because the presumption of regularity appears to have been discarded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF MALACANANG is going to insist that its implementation of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is well intentioned, then it may as well remember what the road to hell is paved with, said Senator JV Ejercito during the Senate finance committee hearing on the DAP controversy.

After grilling Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on the details of the DAP that he instituted in 2011, Ejercito said Abad was just trying to justify “technical malversation.”

Ejercito said Malacanang should have just respected both the Supreme Court and Congress by endorsing to the legislature the appropriate measure that would have funded the programs now being funded by DAP.

“You are just justifying technical malversation,” Ejercito said.

Abad and several cabinet members appeared before the Senate finance committee Thursday morning for a hearing on the DAP, parts of which had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Abad rattled off what he called the benefits of the DAP, saying this mechanism allowed the government to access more funds for public spending programs for infrastructure and social services. With DAP, Abad said, there was more money for the priority programs of the government without having to raise additional taxes.

“We have made unprecedented progress in key priorities,” Abad said.

To this, Ejercito reminded Abad that a declaration of good intentions is not enough. “One cannot juggle funds no matter how good the intention is,” Ejercito said.

For his part, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV seemed more sympathetic to Abad, asking him whether the Supreme Court had accused anyone in the administration of pocketing public funds.

“Sinabi ba ng Supreme Court na meron kayong ninakaw?” Trillanes asked Abad. Abad said no.

Trillanes said it was clear that the Aquino administration must come up with a better communications plan to fight “the better communications plan of the other side.”

At the same time Abad said that many DAP projects are now in limbo since the Supreme Court only found some parts of the project as unconstitutional.

Senator Francis Escudero asked Abad if the Department of Budget and Management would release funds for an ongoing DAP project if the contractor demands payment.

Abad said they would have to ask advise from their legal counsels on the matter.

He said the instruction of the President on the issue was this: “Kung hindi kayo sigurado, huwag ninyong galawin ang proyekto.”