By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
PRESIDENT Aquino asked Congress approval of a supplemental budget Malacanang is submitting in what many see as compliance to the Supreme Court ruling of the Disbursement Acceleration Program as unconstitutional, a departure from his earlier combative stance.
In his 5th State of the Nation Address Monday, President Aquino said they had had to suspend a number of projects “to make certain that we remain in accordance with the Supreme Court’s decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program, or DAP.”
“This is why: We are proposing the passage of a supplemental budget for 2014, so that the implementation of our programs and projects need not be compromised,” he said.
Aquino also called on Congress for the passage of a Joint Resolution that will bring clarity to the definitions and ideas still being debated upon, and to the other issues that only you in the legislature—as the authors of our laws—can shed light on.
It will be recalled that in the SC’s decision of DAP, it pointed out that the “withdrawal of unobligated allotment from the implementing agencies and the declaration of the withdrawn, unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the GAA” is unconstitutional.
Aquino also said that they will be submitting immediately to Congress “ the proposed 2.606 trillion peso National Budget of 2015.”
For the rest of the President’s SONA 2014, please visit: http://www.gov.ph/2014/07/28/english-benigno-s-aquino-iii-fifth-state-of-the-nation-address-july-28-2014/
