MANILA, (PNA) — Malacanang appealed to Filipinos to take time to review the facts on the Disbursement Acceleration Plan (DAP), which it said had been in operation since 2011.
In a press briefing in Malacanang on Tuesday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the DAP, a program that identifies fast-moving government projects that could be accorded additional funding from savings, was used to fasttrack disbursements and push economic growth in light of the global slowdown and the onslaught of recent calamities.
“Perhaps, at this point, it would be good to point out that while some are attempting to paint DAP with the same brush as they have done with PDAF, it’s good to just go through the information that we have already released on this, since the inception of the DAP in 2011,” Valte said.
She added the idea that the initial tranche of P72.11-billion of the DAP approved in 2011 went entirely to lawmakers is a misconception.
“That is a misconception because I can tell you now that a very big percentage of the fund was actually coursed through the implementing agencies themselves; meaning, agencies in the executive,” Valte said.