Congress asked to redefine savings

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. Photo courtesy of the World Economic Forum 2014 / Fotopedia

MANILA – Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said the executive branch is urging the Congress to redefine savings to negate the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

“The Constitution mandates that the Congress define what savings is, not the Supreme Court,” he told the House Committee on Appropriations during the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) presentation on the proposed 2015 budget.

Abad did not disagree with Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares when he claimed that Executive branch’s call for the redefinition of savings will “cure” SC’s DAP ruling.

“You even have a memo to terminate the DAP that we don’t need to continue it. Why do we redefine to fit in to DAP?” Colmenares asked Abad.

“We don’t think the SC appreciates well the task of budget execution,” Abad replied.

“We asked Congress to review that position. We don’t blame perfection. If rules are not as precise, we are coming here for more precise definition,” he said.

Colmenares, however argued that redefining savings will violate the Constitution.

“We think this provision violates the constitutional provision of the Congress’ power of the purse. This redefinition will take this power from us,” he said.