Randy David. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang’s publication of a list of Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP) projects following the speech of President Benigno Aquino III was late and unclear, according to sociologist Randy David.
“[The DAP list] was uploaded only last night. I was the 12th visitor. Nobody knew it was there,” David said during the morning plenary session of the Daylight Dialogue forum in Malacañang.
“It was not very instructive, not very helpful. It seemed to me it was put together rather hastily,” he said.
The Official Gazette published the list of DAP projects on Tuesday.
David said that the list should have indicated which DAP projects were already part of the national budget and which ones are new projects making them illegal as ruled by the Supreme Court.
David said the list should have been made public as soon as the existence of DAP was made public.
“The administration should have put out the list as soon as the issue was made public. That was last year,” he said.
“Did the administration need several months to put together the data?” David said.
Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III said that only 700 people have so far looked at the list despite the intense clamor for it.
David, however, answered that 700 “is not few but a lot.”
“It’s because it’s been only a few hours,” he said.
The dialogue, organized by the World Bank with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Finance (DOF), and Malacañang, is a forum composed of plenary talks which seek to “renew trust in government, institutionalize good governance, and enhance citizen engagement.”
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