Abad urges accountants to lobby high court on DAP

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad. INQUIRER.net file photo

MANILA, Philippines–Saying the Supreme Court ruling on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) could cripple the bureaucracy, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad Jr. asked the Association of Government Accountants of the Philippines Inc. (Agap) on Tuesday in Baguio City to lobby the Supreme Court into amending its July 1 decision that declared unconstitutional parts of the government’s stimulus scheme.

In Quezon City, a citizens’ coalition asked the House of Representatives to thumb down the draft law setting the 2015 budget on the grounds that it would “legalize the unconstitutional,” including the DAP.

The Pera Ibalik sa Tao (Piso) coalition, during its launch at the Quezon Memorial Circle on Monday, called on lawmakers not to approve the 2015 General Appropriations bill, which is expected to be submitted for third and final reading sometime next week.

A government fact sheet described the DAP as a mechanism designed to correct government underspending in 2010 by using “savings and unprogrammed or standby fund appropriations” for priority programs instead of for nonperforming projects.

Abad said the high court’s decision threatened government employees who enforced DAP projects because the court declared that “the authors, proponents and implementors of the DAP” need to prove that they sped up government spending “in good faith.”–Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon and Jaymee T. Gamil in Manila