MANILA, Philippines – Former president turned Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada warned the current administration about how it’s been handling the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

“Madadapa sila,” Estrada said on the sidelines of his first state of the city address on Wednesday, July 23. (They will stumble.)

Pressed on what he meant, Estrada said: “Nakita niyo na, nadapa na sa Supreme Court. Tuloy-tuloy na dapa na iyan.” (They’ve already stumbled before the Supreme Court. They’ll continue stumbling.)

DAP began in 2011, intended to realign savings and unused funds from slow-disbursing programs to fast-moving projects. The government said it was also a response to its underspending in the first few years of the Aquino administration.

Parts of the program were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (SC) on July 1, almost 10 months after it first became controversial thanks to a privilege speech delivered by Senator Jinggoy Estrada, Erap’s son. The younger Estrada has since been detained over another controversy: the pork barrel scam.

The government has asked the SC to reconsider its unanimous decision, but not before President Benigno Aquino III assailed the High Court in a televised speech.

DAP under Estrada?

Estrada is no stranger to controversies and scandals. Elected president in 1998, Estrada’s term was cut short in 2001 after mass protests triggered by accusations of corruption.

Aquino now faces impeachment complaints – his first since elected. Unlike Estrada when he was impeached, however, Aquino enjoys fairly high net satisfaction ratings 4 years into his own term.

In a speech Wednesday, Aquino again defended DAP. “My predecessors all had their versions of DAP, called the Reserve Control Account and alternatively Overall Savings, which were used, in part, to respond to the Asian Financial Crisis, and the Fiscal Crisis,” he said.

Estrada said he never did this during his short-lived term as president. “Hindi ko pwedeng gawin iyon. Tsaka magagaling ang aking budget secretary, finance secretary, sila rin mismo nagsabi sa akin na huwag nating gawin yan,” he said.

(I wouldn’t be able to do that. My budget and finance secretaries were very good. They told me that we shouldn’t realign funds.)

In a termination memorandum on the DAP to Aquino on December 28, 2013, the country’s economic managers – Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Arsenio Balisacan – reported that previous administrations had implemented the scheme under a different name.

They cited the “Reserve Control Account (RCA)” as the first mechanism introduced for imposing mandatory reserves from the budgets of agencies and Special Purpose Funds – ranging from 5% to 25% – to generate funds for various purposes, first introduced by President Corazon C. Aquino through Administrative Order No. 137 (1989).

“The use of the RCA was sustained by the Ramos and Estrada Administrations, citing ‘economic difficulties brought about by the peso depreciation’; as well as the ‘erosion of targeted surplus, resulting from increasing shortfall in revenues for the year,’” they said.

DAP is the brainchild of Abad, one of Aquino’s closest friends and strongest allies. After the SC decision, Abad offered to resign but this was rejected by Aquino.

“Yan ang pinagmamalaki ko, kahit ni isang gabinete ko, hindi nasangkot sa anumang anomaly. I’m proud of each and everyone of them,” Estrada said. (That’s something I’m proud of. None of my cabinet members became controversial.)

In his almost 3 years as president, Estrada had one budget secretary and 2 secretaries of finance. One of his finance secretaries, Edgardo Espiritu, resigned amid reports of infighting in the Estrada cabinet.

Espiritu would later testify against Estrada during his impeachment trial. – Rappler.com