Lacson joins bandwagon vs DAP

Former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Former Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has joined moves against the controversial Disbursement Accelerated Program (DAP) and urged President Benigno Aquino III to correct the mistake of a “constitutionally infirm act” of augmenting”non-existing” items in the budget law and realigning the savings of the executive branch to the legislative.

Lacson, in a speech Thursday, gave his full backing behind the Philippine Constitution Association’s (Philconsa) petition at the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the DAP.

“I fully support your petition–not to put President Aquino in bad light or declare an all-out war against the DAP because I personally believe, as layman who also knows and understands simple provisions of the Constitution that DAP per se is neither bad nor illegal,” he said when he spoke before the Philconsa composed of constitutionalists and legal experts in the country.

“As a former colleague in the Senate who can personally attest to the honesty and incorruptibilty of President Aquino, I want to help him succeed in his well-intentioned “Daang Matuwid” vision for this benighted land, but he must initiate the move to correct the mistake of a constitutionally infirm act of augmenting non existing items in the GAA (General Appropriations Act), and worse, realigning savings in the budget of the executive branch to the legislature in obvious violation of Art VI, Section, paragraph 5 of the 1987 Constitution.”

“I hope he does it while there is still time to rectify the flawed program and possibly render the pending petitions moot and academic,” he added.

Lacson was referring to the additional “pork barrel” funds given to some senators in May 2012 through the DAP, which were allegedly sourced from the savings of the executive branch.

He noted the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) explanation that the funds given to the senators through the DAP came from the savings in 2011 under the “Unused Appropriations” item in the GAA amounting to P238.8 bllion.

Lacson said the term “Unused Appropriations” was composed of “unreleased appropriations” amounting to P79.6 billion andf “unobligated allotments amounting to P159.2 billion

“If the programs and projects were actual budgetary items in the GAA, why was there a need for the endorsement of legislators?” the former senator asked.

“If the projects did not appear in the GAA and therefore still to be identified by the legislator recipients of additional PDAF under DAP, clearly, there were no items in the 2011 and 2012 GAA’s to be augmented,” he said.

Worse, Lacson said, the realignment “crossed over from the executive branch to the legislative.”

He pointed out that the law allowed only the President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the heads of constitutional commissions to augment any item in the GAA for “their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations…”

In the same speech, the former senator also hit the DBM for the two circulars it issued in 2012.

The first was the Budget Circular. 541 which authoized the DBM to pool all unobligated allotments of agencies with “low levels of obligations” as of June 30, 2012 both for continuing and current allotments, and Budget Circular 543, which shortened the validity of appropriations to one year instead of the usual two year validity period for the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and Capital Outlay.

“The twin circular, needless to say, are indicative of a fiscal dictatorship by the DBM,” Lacson said.

“While I have no reason to compare PBSA III (Aquino’s initials) to former PGMA in handling government funds, too much fiscal discretion by any branch of government will not only be unsupportive of the principle of check and balance, but will affect the fiscal management efficiency of the national government,” he further said.

GMA is former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.