MANILA, Philippines—A lawmaker in the House of Representatives said he would file a bill to clearly define savings in the national budget, as the Supreme Court ruled that such practice under President Benigno Aquino III’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is unconstitutional.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said that in the ruling, the court essentially said that savings from projects can only be used at the end of the fiscal year, which he said is “unacceptable and impractical.”
Evardone is referring to the SC’s decision declaring as unconstitutional, the “withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies, and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the General Appropriations Acts”
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“I am filing a bill ASAP that will clearly define savings and how it should be used,” Evardone said.
He added that the bill will allow the use of savings every quarter “so we don’t have idle funds until the end of the year.”
“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,” he said.
The bill also seeks to amend the 2014 General Appropriations Act, and such amendment will be included in future budgetary act, Evardone added.
“So that the hands of government will not be tied for one year,” Evardone said.
DAP funds, essentially an economic stimulus fund and a savings-impounding mechanism, have been criticized after Senator Jinggoy Estrada exposed that the presidential pork barrel funds were given allegedly as incentives to senators who voted to oust convicted Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Various groups lauded the SC’s move to rule DAP, criticized as the president’s “pork barrel,” as illegal.
Militant groups said they would file an impeachment complaint against Aquino over DAP, but presidential allies in Congress said they would block it.
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