Angara seeks abolition of DAP, PIDS

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Edgardo Angara has called for the abolition of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and transfer its resources to a new body that would train the country’s foreign service officers.

Angara, vice chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said that a new body like the Escuela Diplomatica in Madrid or the Civil Service Academy in Singapore is needed to oversee the training of the foreign service officers in order to raise the country’s level of diplomacy.

“We need a dedicated core to concentrate on the professional development of the people who are going into foreign service instead of the ad hoc arrangement we have now,” he stated. Angara said that the DAP and PIDS were “almost idle” and so their resources, including manpower, could be better spent on an institute dedicated to training diplomats.

He said that the two agencies “may have already outlived their usefulness” and yet are still receiving a substantial amount in the national budget.

“Here we have two almost idle institutions in this country with tremendous amounts of assets... They are supposed to be think tanks for government,” Angara said.