DAP mostly poured into no-impact spending – IBON
MANILA, Philippines—The Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP) was not able to address the country’s most urgent socio-economic problems such as creating jobs and stimulating economic activity, research group IBON foundation said Thursday.
“In qualitative terms, the DAP as a whole did not meet stimulus standards of immediately and significantly creating jobs, raising incomes, and stimulating local economic activity,” IBON said in a statement following the Senate hearing throughout the day where Budget and Management Secretary Butch Abad said the DAP contributed to economic growth.
“One-third (33.2 percent) or P49.8 billion went to virtually no-impact spending – consisting of P49.8 billion in equity infusion or payments to financial institutions, landlords, landowners and big business. These are not among the sectors most in need of immediate and direct benefits from a stimulus program,” IBON said.
Around P17.9 billion or 11.9 percent went to low-impact spending including P10.3 billion for foreign media outfits, consultancy firms, and manufacturers and P7.6 billion for improving offices and facilities and increasing operating expenses of government agencies.
“The benefits of such spending are very restricted and, again, do not go to poor areas or the population most in need,” IBON said. “The general pattern of DAP spending is not consistent with a stimulus package designed to address the country’s most urgent socioeconomic problems.”
“This included P500 million for a global media campaign, P450 million to two South Korean firms for doing the engineering designs for the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project, and at least P4 billion for imported technologies and equipment by various agencies. This also includes some P571 million to improve the offices of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Tourism (DOT), House of Representatives (HOR) and Malacañang,” it said.
Ibon said that nearly half of the DAP had not gone to stimulative spending because it went to no- or low-impact projects.
“This is particularly the case for over a third (35.5 percent) or P53.2 billion of the DAP that largely went to legislative and executive pork barrel projects not previously identified as stimulative and whose impact is then uncertain,” IBON said.
“These projects of uncertain impact include at least P35.2 billion in lump sums for ‘other’, ‘various’, ‘local’ and ‘priority’ infrastructure projects nationwide, P7.0 billion for Local Government Units, P10.9 billion for ‘peace and development’ projects, and others,” it said.
IBON said that for DAP to have greater stimulus on the economy, much of the spending should have been poured into infrastructure projects across the country to alleviate poverty and unemployment.
It noted that there was 17.8 percent or P26.5 billion that went to “assorted infrastructure, agriculture, housing and education/training projects” which could be “potentially worthwhile expenditure items.”
“Around 1.7 percent or P2.5 billion went to direct government hiring of interns, non-uniformed personnel, and health workers,” IBON said.
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