DAP not used to bribe lawmakers: DBM

MANILA - Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad on Tuesday denied that the Disbursement Acceleration Program was tapped by the Aquino administration for "bribes" to lawmakers for the ouster of Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012. Abad said the DAP was used to ramp up government expenditures in the wake of sluggish spending. He said that since 2011, DAP-supported releases have been made to government agencies and various projects endorsed by senators, regardless of the lawmakers' votes during the Corona impeachment. DAP releases are sourced from the overall savings of the government, which includes unprogrammed funds generated from windfall revenue collections, unreleased appropriations from slow-moving projects, terminated programs based on program evaluation of Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) studies, as well as the withdrawal of unobligated or unused allotments already released to government agencies. Abad said releases sourced from DAP were used for quick-moving projects that directly supported the Aquino administration's socio-economic development platform, as articulated in the President's Social Contract with the Filipino People. "The projects supported by DAP were chosen according to the merits of each program, with particular attention to their consistency with the President's own development agenda for the country," he said in a statement. As of 01 October 2013, DBM records show that a total of P137.3 billion has been released from the disbursement acceleration mechanism. This includes P82.5 billion in releases in 2011 and another P54.8 billion in 2012. At least 91 percent of DAP releases for 2011 and 2012 was channeled to projects under various government agencies and local government units. ANC TOP STORY, October 1, 2013