MANILA-Senate President Franklin M. Drilon today urged the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release all documents, including pertinent Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs), pertaining to the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds which were availed of by lawmakers.
“The records are with the DBM and Secretary Florencio Abad said that the DBM is conducting a thorough research on the matter. Upon the completion of its report, the DBM should release them for the sake of transparency,” said Drilon.
“These are public records and it is only right that the public be given access to these documents so that they can scrutinize and find out if public funds were indeed put for public use,” he stressed.
The Senate President likewise reiterated his earlier call for the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct a comprehensive audit of the DAP, and investigate if there were red flags in the implementation.
He said that a COA full-blown audit would find out if DAP funds were misspent.
“The COA should heed calls for a complete audit of DAP. Only a COA report would dispel fears that these funds were used for personal gains,” said Drilon.
