BY EUGENE Y. ADIONG
BACOLOD City – President Benigno Aquino III earned praises from the president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) for his transparency on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Frank Carbon welcomed the President’s decision to release details of the spending program, saying it showed accountability in government.
The business leader appeared convinced of the President’s explanation that DAP had legal basis and was not made “out of the blue.”
The Supreme Court declared parts of DAP unconstitutional on July 1.
On Monday in a national address, Aquino said DAP’s basis was the 1987 Administrative Code.
The President’s decision to appeal the high tribunal’s decision is good, said Carbon.
“You don‘t have unrestricted power. Meaning, you could be challenged,” he said.
The President said he was surprised that the Supreme Court did not take into account the legal basis for DAP.
“How can they say that our spending methods were unconstitutional when they did not look into our basis? Even until now, Section 39 of the Administrative Code is in effect, along with its other sections,” Aquino said.
Carbon agreed with the President that the government needs to spend if the people want progress.
“If you want the country to move forward, you need billions of pesos. You need more than that,” he said. “You have to spend to keep the economy moving to generate jobs and investments.”
President Aquino defended his government’s decision to realign savings to bankroll fast-moving projects endorsed by agencies and lawmakers by highlighting the beneficial effects of the DAP.
He clarified that DAP was not a project but an “efficient way of spending the budget; it follows the law and adheres to the mandate granted to the Executive Branch.”
Another advantage of DAP, according to Aquino, was that projects that were temporarily suspended for a given year would not have to compete for funding with the other finished projects in the following year.
Because of the Supreme Court decision declaring parts of DAP unconstitutional, Aquino warned that “benefits would be delayed since it would take until March of the following year to fulfill all the requirements regarding these funds.
On top of this, he said, it would all then have to go through another four to six months of bidding and procurement./PN
