By Lilybeth G. Ison
MANILA, Feb. 3 (PNA) — The Supreme Court (SC) en banc has lowered the number of unconstitutional acts previously declared as illegal under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
In a media briefing on Tuesday, SC Public Information Office chief Theodore Te said the SC en banc lowered the number of unconstitutional acts under the DAP from four to three.
In its original July 1, 2014 ruling, Te said the following were considered illegal:
— withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies, and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the General Appropriations Act (GAA);
— funding of projects, activities and programs not covered by the GAA;
— cross-border transfers of the savings of the executive to augment the appropriations of other offices outside the executive; and
— portion of the DAP that allows the use of unprogrammed funds even without a certification from the National Treasurer saying that revenue collections exceeded the revenue targets due to non-compliance with the conditions provided in the relevant GAA.
Under the new ruling, the SC allowed “the funding of projects, activities and programs that were not covered by any appropriation in the General Appropriations Act.”
When asked by the media if the modification could be interpreted as a “slight relaxation” of the original ruling, Te said he would rather brand it as partial modification.
The administration has said the implementation of the DAP has helped pump the economy through increased public spending. (PNA)