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PNoy aware that DAP was illegal – solon


President Benigno Aquino III was fully aware that practices under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) were illegal, an opposition solon said. Another congressman revealed that the DAP has existed before in the national budget, but known via another name.

 
In an interview with GMA News' “24 Oras” aired Wednesday evening, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares said Aquino was fully aware that the realignment of the budget of the executive branch to the other branches of the government such as the Congress was illegal.
 
Colmenares said Aquino even filed a bill in 2008 during his term as a senator to avoid such practice, which was allegedly prevalent during the administration former President and current Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
 
“Hindi naman pwedeng 'pag ginawa ni President Arroyo, illegal. 'Pag ginawa ni President Aquino, legal na. So, he cannot claim good faith dahil alam nyang bawal,” Colmenares said.
 
During the 14th Congress, then Senator Aquino authored Senate Bill 3121 titled the “The Budget Impoundment Control Act”. The measure sought to prevent the President from realigning national budget without the approval of Congress, who has the sole “power of the purse”.
 
In another interview with GMA News, Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone said that it has been the practice of Malacañang since 1992 to distribute funds to various government agencies without the necessary legislation from Congress.
 
“Wala ito sa regular budget (appropriations).Extra releases ito sakanila (government agencies),” Evardone said.
 
Evardone said this form of practice by the Palace is contained under the program called “Reserve Control Account Overall Savings”. He said Aquino renamed this program as DAP.
 
“Matagal nang practice yang DAP since 1992 based dito sa document. Ito ay hindi nabuking, walang nagreklamo or acceptable practice siya,” Evardone said.
 
He said that based on the documents he obtained, among the government agencies that received extra fund releases from the Malacañang from 1992 to 2013 were the Commision on Elections, COA, DOJ, Office of the Ombudsman, Congress and the Civil Service Commission.
 
Evardone however did not specify where he obtained these documents.
 
Under the Constitution, the Congress is the only branch of the government who has the power to approve the national budget through a General Appropriations Act (GAA).
 
In October 2011 however, a year after he was elected president, Aquino created the DAP which allowed him to release P72 billion funds for various government agencies outside the executive branch, such as the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
 
Malacañang however said that the practices under DAP cannot be considered as impoundment.
 
“The Supreme Court itself says that, if I may quote, 'withdrawal of unobligated allotments and retention of appropriated funds cannot be considered as impoundment,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.
 
Under SB 3121 Aquino defined impoundment as “the refusal of the President, for whatever reason, to release funds appropriated by Congress.”
 
The DAP became controversial when Senator Jinggoy Estrada, in a privilege speech, revealed that funds under dap was also used as “gifts” to some senators who received P50 million to P100 million each after voting in favor of the conviction of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona.
 
The Malacañang has repeatedly denied the allegation and said that DAP was created and implemented in good faith.
 
Certain practices under DAP were recently declared unconstitutional by the high court. Among these were the transfer of savings of the executive branch in other agencies outside the executive; the funding of projects, activities and programs that were not covered by the GAA; and withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies and renaming these unused allotments and unreleased appropriations as “savings”.  — Elizabeth Marcelo/ELR, GMA News
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