BY PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA – Where did the billions of pesos of Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds go? The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) must be transparent, said Cong. Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City.
The department will be releasing a list of DAP-identified projects with the names of legislators who nominated them, Secretary Florencio Abad said yesterday.
“It’s good for transparency. Maayo nga mabal-an sang tanan,” Treñas told Panay News.
He previously admitted to having been allocated P10-million worth of infrastructure projects “several months” after signing the impeachment complaint against then Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2011.
However, the congressman said he was not sure if it was part of the DBM-designed DAP.
Treñas also said he does not believe the P10 million allotted for a “farm-to-market road” in Iloilo City’s Jaro district was a “bribe” for anti-Corona legislators.
“We were not forced to sign the impeachment complaint,” he said.
DBM’s decision to release the list of DAP-funded projects will strengthen the government’s advocacy on transparency, said Treñas.
“It will further show if indeed the funds were actually put to good use,” he said.
At the Senate hearing on DAP yesterday, Abad said he has to re-check their records first to ascertain who nominated which DAP projects.
The government had released a total of P144.378 billion for DAP-funded projects, said Abad.
Iloilo’s Sen. Franklin Drilon previously said his P100-million DAP were used for the construction of the Iloilo Convention Center.
In the July 14 list of DAP-identified projects that DBM released, relocation sites for informal settlers along the Iloilo River and the Jalaur River Multi-purpose Project-Phase II (JRMP-II) were identified as recipients of DAP funds.
The low-cost housing units received P100 million, DBM records showed.
The JRMP II, on one hand, got P450 million.
Treñas said DAP, despite the Supreme Court’s declaring it unconstitutional, has been the country’s “economic life jacket” that gave unprecedented economic growth.
He defended the Aquino administration, describing it as “very judicious” in its spending policies.
“For the first time in the country’s history, we do not have a roller-coaster economic growth because of the Aquino administration’s efficient use of the DAP and other public funds,” Treñas said.
He noted, however, that with the Supreme Court’s decision, the government has no choice but to abide by it, re-adjust its spending priorities and make the necessary improvements in the 2015 national budget./PN
