Noy, Butch not off the hook on DAP – ex-IBP exec

MANILA, Philippines – Outgoing President Aquino and Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad can be investigated over illegal acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Former Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Vicente Joyas said this yesterday as he rebutted the reported pronouncement of Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. that the President and Abad have already been cleared by the Supreme Court when it struck down the DAP as unconstitutional.

“The Supreme Court ruling was clear that authors of the DAP are not covered by the operative fact doctrine as applied by the court in this case,” he told The STAR.

Joyas and the IBP are among the petitioners in the DAP case, which was resolved with finality by the high court in February last year.

Contrary to Coloma’s claim, Joyas said the high court did not clear executive officials of any liability when it partially reconsidered the appeal of the office of the solicitor general.

Joyas said what the SC reconsidered and allowed was the funding of projects, activities and programs under the DAP that were not covered by any allocation in the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The acts of withdrawal of unobligated allotments from implementing agencies and their use as savings prior to end of fiscal year, as well as the cross-border transfer of savings of the executive to augment funds of agencies outside the department and the use of unprogrammed funds despite the absence of a certification by the national treasurer that the revenue collections exceeded revenue targets for non-compliance with conditions in the GAA, remained illegal.