The controversial Disbursement Acceleration program (DAP) has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. But, of course, that doesn’t sit well with President Noynoy Aquino and his allies.
“Budget Secretary Butch Abad defended the DAP before senators in the first Senate hearing on the controversial fund,” reports ABS-CBNnews.com.
For starters, Abad told the Senate the Philippines “did not become one of Asia’s best-performing economies by playing it safe.” Thus, he said, when he made the DAp move he was was being “innovative and creative.”
Abad explained, “We did not not become government pioneers in transparency and openness by playing it safe. We did all these through the bold and single-minded pursuit of innovation and reform under the leadership of President Aquino. But how can we now compel our public institutions to find inventive solutions to persistent problems when we stifle creativity?”
He also added, “”While I bow to the Supreme Court’s wisdom, I must say, with all due respect, that its decision on these issues may undo progress we’ve been making.”
The report noted: “Abad the pointed out that before the DAP, the economy grew only by 3.2%. In 2012, the country’s GDP rose 6.8% and then grew by 7.3% last year.”
The statistics are impressive, but what happens when people are already too pissed to be impressed?
Screengrab of a publicity photo
