DBM asked to give Congress list of projects funded by DAP

MANILA, Philippines — Show us where the money went.

A party-list congressman on Wednesday asked the Department of Budget and Management to disclose the list of government projects funded by the Disbursement Acceleration Program, which the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional on Tuesday.

Buhay Party-list Representative Lito Atienza said the DBM must give the House of Representatives a complete list of the DAP projects in advance of congressional hearings on the 2015 national budget to avoid double-funding.

“Now that the Supreme Court has rendered a final ruling on the DAP, the DBM has no more reason to keep the list of DAP-funded projects confidential,” Atienza said in a press statement.

Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

House members will need to review the list to guide them in crafting next year’s budget, he said.

Atienza said the DBM, “in the spirit of the full transparency mantra often invoked by the Aquino administration in all matters involving public funds,” should include on the list where the DAP funds were drawn from and where they were supposed to have been spent.

He said he wanted to know if some of those public funds might have gone to bogus nongovernmental organizations created by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10 billion pork barrel fund scam.

“It is the responsibility now of Congress to get details of how public funds were disbursed by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and that these be made public, along with the senators who were given DAP funds – were they channeled to Napoles NGOs and the like?” Atienza said.

“If indeed, these DAP funds were put in Napoles-like NGOs, then a clear case of plunder should be filed against those who received and those who disbursed it,” Atienza said.

The DAP was a stimulus package introduced by the Aquino administration in 2011 to fast-track public spending and push economic growth.

It came under fire after senators revealed last year that the funds had been used as incentives for legislators who supported the 2012 impeachment and eventual conviction and removal from office of then Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court declared the DAP unconstitutional, striking down specifically DBM a circular allowing the release of savings of the executive branch to other agencies, as well using the savings to fund projects not covered by the General Appropriations Act.

On the other hand, Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone said he would file a bill that would clearly define “savings” and how it should be spent.

“The bill will amend the General Appropriations Act of 2014 and will be included in future GAAs so that the hands of the government [will not be tied] for one year,” he said.

Evardone, an administration ally, said the bill would allow the use of savings every quarter “so we don’t have idle funds until the end of the year.”

Congress must exercise its constitutional duty on appropriation measures, he said.

“The SC definition of savings is unacceptable and impractical. Public funds must be used properly and timely to spur economic growth. We don’t have to wait until the end of the year to use savings,” Evardone said.

Also on Wednesday, the People’s Initiative to Abolish Pork Barrel (PIAP), a broad coalition of anti-pork barrel groups, reiterated its call for a people’s initiative to abolish the pork barrel system.

“While DAP and Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) were declared by the SC unconstitutional, there is still no law criminalizing and penalizing acts related to DAP, PDAF and other forms of pork barrel,” it said.

It said its proposed Pork Barrel Abolition Law through a people’s initiative would criminalize and penalize, among others, the withdrawal of unobligated funds before the end of the fiscal year, cross-border rechanneling of funds, allocating funds to items not considered in the general appropriation, as well as the allocation and use of any form of congressional and presidential pork.

“The Supreme Court decision is an affirmation of our position that DAP is a form of pork barrel that has led to the diversion of badly needed public funds to highly questionable projects,” the coalition said.

The coalition will be spearheading efforts to gather some 5.4 million signatures for the proposed law.

RELATED STORIES

SC declares parts of DAP unconstitutional

3 senators see no need to return DAP funds

Heads must roll at Abad-led DBM after SC ruling on DAP – Jinggoy

Bayan bares DAP documents, says Aquino ‘cannot invoke good faith’