A veteran lawmaker has urged Malacañang to make a full disclosure of the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as part of the principle of transparency being espoused by the current administration.
Valenzuela City Congressman Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian said Malacañang should come clean with DAP by releasing the documents and other specifics on the reported 116 projects amounting to at least P150 billion, sourced from DAP.

“Now that the Supreme Court has spoken and declared several provisions of DAP as unconstitutional, it is incumbent on the administration to tell all on where the billions of government savings went by identifying all the projects funded by DAP,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian, a stalwart of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, added the Palace is still liable for the funds it transferred to senators allegedly to be used as economic stimulus.

“Being the source of the funds, the Executive should be responsible for how DAP was spent. Or else this means the Budget department and the Palace gave legislators a license to spend public funds freely on anything,” Gatchalian said.

This, as presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda finger-pointed at the legislators, quoted by news reports as saying: “The use of the DAP funds were meant primarily to help the constituents, the countrymen. The question now is: Did the senators misuse those funds?”

Gatchalian issued the statement several hours before the scheduled live coverage of President Noynoy Aquino’s statement on DAP.

Malacanang earlier claimed that 91 percent of DAP can be accounted for and that DAP-funded projects served a stimulus that largely contributed to the country’s economic growth last year. (R Burgos/Monica Cantilero)