Just scrap DAP – Joker Arroyo

Former Senator Joker Arroyo INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Former Senator Joker Arroyo  on  Thursday called for the scrapping of the controversial  Disbursement Acceleration  Program (DAP).

“The DAP is the unfortunate progeny of a misadventure at the DBM. It should simply be abolished,” Arroyo  said in a statement.

DBM is the Department of Budget and Management headed by Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad.

Arroyo said scrapping the DAP would not need a congressional action, saying  President Benigno Aquino III could  simply  stop fund releases through the DAP and proclaim it “window closed.”

The Aquino administration has been criticized  for allegedly funnelling millions of pesos worth of projects to some senators through  the DAP  after the impeachment of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

But Arroyo said the controversy surrounding the DAP was not enough to push for Aquino’s impeachment.

“Impeach the President?  Let us not trivialize the process of impeachment. When overused, it is drained of its cathartic  value and it becomes terribly stale,” he said.

“I have always maintained that not every  misstep of an impeachable officer is impeachable,” said the former senator .”

“Besides, with the DAP in place, impeachment will not reach first   base. The solution. Simple. Just scrap DAP,” he added.

Arroyo said the country   could not afford  to be rocked with endless and controversies as the  Supreme  Court    is already saddled  with  so many constitutional cases.

“So with COA (the  Commission on Audit) and  the Ombudsman,” he said.