DAP introduced to Senate in 2011 - Abad

MANILA, Philippines — As early as October 2011, senators were informed of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said Thursday.

During a Senate finance committee hearing, Abad dismissed claims that lawmakers were unaware of the DAP since the controversial program was introduced to the Senate when it was conceived.

"As you may remember, I had already presented DAP to the Senate committee on finance in October 2011 during the presentation of the proposed 2012 national budget," Abad said.

The budget chief added that the launching of the DAP in 2011 was also covered by the media.

Abad also said that the generation and use of savings such as the DAP is not a new practice.

He also reiterated that the the Aquino, Ramos and Estrada administrations had a DAP-like mechanism called the Reserve Control Account while the Arroyo administration had the Overall Savings.

"Historically speaking, cross-border transfers from one branch of government to another were not uncommon," Abad said.

"Not only has it been done before. We knew that we could implement DAP because the law permitted it," he added.