MANILA, (PNA) — The Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which the Aquino administration maintains is not illegal, will continue to address contingencies but not request by lawmakers for funding, Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad said.
“The DAP is the expression of the President’s exercise of his power to utilize savings and augment funds,” he said in a briefing Tuesday.
Data released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Thursday showed that about P15.13 billion has been approved for disbursement this year for hiring of policemen, additional funds for modernization of the Philippine National Police (PNP), redevelopment of Roxas Boulevard, and rehabilitation fund for Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental, which are greatly affected by Typhoon Pablo.
Abad said they already have budget for some of these projects to be sourced from the dividends remitted by some government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and unused allocation for a Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) project.
He, however, said they still have to look for funding for the P3.89 billion to be used for the rehabilitation of Zamboanga City as well as the remaining P10 billion that the government has yet to give to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for its capitalization.
The New Central Bank Act, which instituted the BSP from the old Central Bank of the Philippines, in 1993 has given the BSP a P50 billion capitalization, P10 billion of which was given during the BSP’s first year of operations.
The Aquino administration gave the BSP P10 billion in December 2011 on back of improvement of fiscal situation and P20 billion in December 2012.
It vowed to give the remaining P10 billion capitalization in December this year.
Abad said they have determined where to get the funding for disbursement in the last quarter this year but the President has yet to give his approval.
He noted that “because of the policies that we’ve adopted the savings are getting smaller but only because the spending is now almost matched with what we really have to spend on.”
“That’s the benefit of tightening the budget and focusing on priorities,” he said.
In 2011, the government released P83.53 billion for DAP while it amounted to P58.7 billion in 2012.
Projects funded by DAP in 2011include the relocation of families living along dangerous zones, BSP capitalization, landowners’ compensation for a Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) project, and comprehensive peace and development program for Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Last year, the projects included vital projects like tourism road, premium payments of teachers in the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), BSP capitalization and rehabilitation of regional health units.
DAP was introduced in late 2011 to boost government spending to ensure the continued expansion of the domestic economy amid the negative external environment.
It was instituted initially for infrastructure projects, which have been proven to sustain growth of an economy.
In 2011, the Philippines grew, as measured by gross domestic product (GPD), by 3.9 percent a big drop from the 7.6 percent in the previous year after the Aquino administration plugged loopholes in government spending.
In the first quarter of 2012, the domestic economy churned in a 6.4 percent growth buoyed by improvements in services sector and manufacturing as well as low inflation environment.
The robust expansion of the domestic economy, due to combination of higher government spending and strong services sector, continued throughout the year enabling the country to end 2012 with a 6.8 percent growth, among the highest in Asia.
In the first half of 2013, the domestic economy grew by 7.6 percent, same as that of China, the world’s second largest economy to date.