MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III will speak about his government’s controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program in a national broadcast on Monday ahead of his State of the Nation Address, Malacañang said Saturday.
The President will address the nation from Malacañang around 6 p.m. Monday, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said in an advisory.
“Broadcast networks have been requested to air the President’s speech on current national issues,” Coloma said. He confirmed the main issue would be DAP, which has been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but did not elaborate.
Last Friday, the President announced he had rejected Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad’s resignation over the DAP issue.
On Saturday, Abad said the President, by rejecting his resignation, agreed there was nothing irregular about the DAP.
“I was elated that in rejecting my resignation, he made it once again very clear his firm conviction that there is nothing wrong with DAP. In fact, as he quoted the SC, it did the country good,” Abad said in a text message.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, the President has been deluged with calls to address DAP issue when he delivers his annual State of the Nation Address on July 28.
Meanwhile, Palace spokesperson Abigail Valte said Saturday that persistent calls for Abad to resign were now irrelevant after Aquino announcement on Friday that he had rejected the budget secretary’s offer to quit.
President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“The President has made a decision. We would be just kicking the can around if we still discuss why the resignation wasn’t revocable or irrevocable,” Valte said over government-run radio dzRB.
Whether one agreed with the President or not, the “fact remains that the President has made his decision,” she added. “So perhaps, let it stop there. On the matter of Secretary Butch Abad staying or leaving, the President has made his decision.”
The President’s rejection of Abad’s resignation was a vote of confidence in the secretary, Valte said, despite the debacle in the high court over the DAP.
Critics, including the United Nationalist Alliance, called the President’s rejection of Abad’s resignation, which was not irrevocable, a “case of a bad script and bad acting.”
Partylist lawmakers in the House of Representatives said the President’s act of “defying the law” would only embolden them to impeach him for betrayal of public trust.
Several others, including activist priest Father Robert Reyes, called on Abad to do himself and Filipinos a big favor by resigning irrevocably.
At the Cabinet presentation of the proposed 2015 budget Friday morning, the President announced Abad had tendered his resignation the previous day but he rejected it.
“To accept his resignation is to assign to him a wrong and I cannot accept the notion that doing right by our people is a wrong,” Mr. Aquino said.
Voting 13-0, Supreme Court justices struck down the DAP, a mechanism whereby pooled savings from the executive department were allotted to high-impact projects to pump-prime the economy beginning 2011 even though these projects were not covered by specific provisions in the General Appropriations Act passed by Congress.
The justices specifically voided a circular allowing the release of savings from the Executive Department to agencies and projects outside the national budget.
Some P136.75 billion in “savings” were pooled under the DAP from the 2011 and 2012 national budgets, but only P114.57 billion was used, Budget officials said.
Valte bristled at UNA’s comments that the President’s rejection of Abad’s resignation was an act of self-redemption.
“Let’s not add reasons other than what has been clearly enunciated by the President,” she said. “The President’s statement was very clear, that was very precise. So let’s not add other reasons where there is none.”
Reacting to the Senate finance committee’s invitation to Abad to explain DAP at its July 21 hearing, Valte said the Executive Department has always been ready to explain the details of the program.
“What I know is that currently the DBM is trying to collate all the documents and the data related to the 116 projects,” she said. “We will come out with this at the appropriate time.”
The question of why Vice President Jejomar Binay did not clap his hands as most of the Cabinet officials did after the President’s announcement should be addressed to him, Valte said.
“Some did observe that, but the Vice President has released a statement. I don’t know why he didn’t clap yesterday,” she said.
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