SC ruling on DAP hit

MALACAÑANG yesterday slammed the Supreme Court for apparently putting on bad light Cabinet officials who just implemented projects funded through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only disbursed the funds under DAP to the implementing agencies.

“So what’s the role of (Budget) Secretary (Flor- encio) Butch Abad? He disbursed the money to the different agencies. Also, there are no allegations of did he pocket the money?

There is none,” he said.

“So you know, if speaking about the criminal liability that the Supreme Court mentioned, if you look at what the Supreme Court said in that paragraph where it ascribes the presumption of bad faith on the authors, implementors, and proponents, you are not only saying Butch Abad has criminal liability.

“You’re also saying that Secretary (Rogelio) Babes Singson who’s an implementor of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) projects that are sourced from DAP, is also criminally liable. You’re also saying that Bro. Armin Luistro is criminally liable because he implemented DepEd (Department of Education) funds sourced from—DepEd projects sourced from DAP funds,” he explained.

He said the Supreme Court has placed all these people who were advancing the cause of reform to be “criminally liable” for implementing DAP projects.

“That is the import of the Supreme Court decision. So people who are laboring under the notion that we should improve the people’s lives by implementing all these projects, school projects, school buildings, farm-to-market roads, are now being told by the Supreme Court that since you implemented those DAP projects, you are now criminally liable,” Lacierda added.

Malacanang, through the Office of the Solicitor General, has yet to decide if it would file a motion for reconsideration on the high court’s decision declaring parts of DAP as unconstitutional.