UNA hits Abad for using House to skirt SC ruling

MANILA, Philippines - United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) secretary general Toby Tiangco yesterday criticized Budget Secretary Florencio Abad for allegedly manipulating the House of Representatives into adopting the executive department’s definition of the term “savings.”

Citing Abad’s letter dated Aug. 1, Tiangco said the budget secretary wanted Congress to adopt a priority bill redefining the practice of impounding savings, which the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional.

“The fact that Abad requested Congress to accommodate the redefinition of ‘savings’ is a clear admission of his criminal liability, and now he wants to use Congress to absolve him,” Tiangco said.

He said Abad sent the House a draft bill requesting that it be prioritized.

“He now wants to use Congress to circumvent the SC ruling and to save himself from criminal liability,” he added.

The UNA official said the draft bill, if signed into law, seeks to “cure” the decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and make the SC ruling moot.

He cited Section 7 of Abad’s draft bill, which covers “retroactive and curative applications” of the rules on savings.

With the redefinition of savings, Tiangco said, DBM wanted unused funds for programmed projects to be pooled as savings, even in the middle of the year.

Tiangco wanted to know if Abad’s move has been cleared and approved by the President.

“If Abad did not clear this with the President, then PNoy should fire him now. This explains why the Abad-Mar (Roxas) faction in LP is afraid to be removed from their posts because they will be exposed,” he said.