UP faculty calls for DAP accountability

MANILA, Philippines - Faculty members of the University of the Philippines in Diliman called on transparency and accountability over the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) following the Supreme Court ruling that declared this as unconstitutional.

“We call on the public to remain vigilant and demand accountability from all those culpable,” the university council composed of over a thousand faculty members said in a statement that was unanimously approved on Monday.

“Let us all work together to ensure that a thorough investigation on the use of public funds is conducted, and that those involved are prosecuted so that justice is served,” the council added.

A separate statement, issued by a group of faculty members calling for the abolition of all forms of pork barrel, also supported holding President Benigno S. Aquino III accountable “for the architecture and implementation” of DAP.

“Pleas of ignorance or good intentions do not excuse BS Aquino’s culpability in the architecture of a program that legitimized the hundred billions’ worth of presidential pork barrel,” said the UP faculty against the congressional and presidential pork barrel.

“As the (Supreme Court) remains silent on any clarifications pertaining to its decision, an indisputable truth remains: the ruling is a testament that Noynoy Aquino did not act in accordance with the 1987 Constitution for the better part of his term,” the statement added.

The group said the economic growth rate that Malacañang is using to justify the program is a “fallacy used to screen the continuing impoverishment among the masses, the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, the perpetuation of human rights violations, (and) the infringements upon our national sovereignty.”

The professors said that the fabricated growth rates were spun at the expense of basic social services.

P1.3B DAP for UP

Meanwhile, UP vice president for public affairs Prospero de Vera confirmed that the university received some P1.3 billion from DAP– coursed through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) – to finance various capital outlay projects in various campuses across the country.

“We assumed regularity… It came from CHED,” De Vera said in an interview with The STAR.

“If you were a government agency and CHED calls for proposal, you will be crazy if you don’t comply,” he added, noting the university’s need for additional budget.

This year, for instance, the university proposed a budget of P17 billion, but only over P8 billion was approved.

De Vera said anyone can conduct an audit on the funds that the university received through DAP, saying they abided by the procurement procedures.

Based on a document released by the Office of the Student Regent of UP in 2012, DAP funds were used to fund construction and renovation projects in various campuses of the university across the country.

Among these were the constructions of the School of Statistics building in Diliman, an analytical lab building in Los Baños, the learning centers of the Open University, a two-storey library in Mindanao, as well as the extension of various buildings in Baguio and Cebu and the purchase of MRI and CT scan for UP Manila.

Earlier reports said the disaster risk reduction program Project NOAH, which is implemented in partnership with various UP units, also received over P1 billion from DAP.

Danilo Arao, a member of the faculty against pork barrel, said we could not expect the recipients to go into technicalities when they receive funding, especially if it came from the Department of Budget and Management.

He added, however, that the remaining DAP funds in the university should be given back to the government, but the projects must be completed by using funds sourced from somewhere else.