Abad: No regrets implementing DAP

MANILA, Philippines - Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said yesterday he does not regret proposing and implementing the P141-billion Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), parts of which the Supreme Court (SC) has declared as unconstitutional.

“Certainly not,” he said firmly in a television interview when asked if he has regrets.

“Without raising new taxes, except the sin tax (adjustments), without borrowing more funds, we have managed to increase unprecedentedly our investments in social protection like conditional cash transfers (to the poor), education, infrastructure, health, housing, you name it. As a result, the economy has grown,” he said.

However, he admitted apologizing to President Aquino and the Cabinet for the controversy his brainchild has generated.

He said the SC, in its decision declaring certain practices under DAP unconstitutional, conceded that the program contributed to economic growth.

He said the World Bank has acknowledged the contribution of DAP to economic expansion.

Abad explained that he conceived of the expenditure acceleration program because certain agencies were experiencing “spending and implementation bottlenecks, inefficiencies and leakages.”

“There were agencies that were slow in using their funds, while others were faster and more efficient in implementing projects and accomplishing their task,” he said.

He said DAP was intended to deliver critical services to the people as fast as possible, using savings without the government waiting for the budget year to end, as the SC would now want it to do under its DAP ruling.

He reiterated that they relied on the Administrative Code of 1987 and the Constitution in realigning savings and augmenting existing appropriations.

“The means that we used were legal and constitutional,” he insisted.

He asserted that only existing appropriations in the national budget were augmented.

He said previous administrations, from the late President Corazon Aquino to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, realigned savings.

In fact, he pointed out that Mrs. Aquino, former President Fidel Ramos and former President Joseph Estrada required the withholding of savings at the start of the year through a mechanism called Reserve Control Account. – With Zinnia dela Peña