DAP and PDAF as Philippine development strategies

The preoccupation of painting the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as one of the executive’s basic planning tools is an interesting developmental spin.

 

It is interesting because it exposes the depth and breadth of our political mind as well as our political behavior. 

 

First, it tells us that despite the trillions of pesos that various administrations have spent over the years on their respective development priorities, we have not really moved an inch beyond the politics of patronage.

 

Second, it tells us that after all these years of pork barrel politics, all we can show is how to squander and behave badly and then escape just punishment for our actions.

 

Seriously, how can we develop the Philippines with this kind of political thinking and behavior?

 

Bereft of a well-thought out social and infrastructural master plan to rationally allocate funds for the entire country, we are reduced to ad-hoc and discretionary funding for political gain.

 

How then can we seriously develop the country when the majority of legislators think that their priority is not to legislate but to dip their hands into the pork barrel or to dole out money to their preferred NGOs, fake or otherwise?

 

"Is it a surprise then that we have in our midst an all-star legislative cast with names like “tanda,” “sexy,” and “gwapo" allegedly involved in the P10 billion scam with Ms. Janet Lim-Napoles?

 

How then can we expect our country to seriously develop when the Secretary of Budget and Management doled out P92.5 million in pork barrel in 2012 to the smallest province of the country (its allocation is ranked sixth overall among 289 members of the House of Representatives and even bigger than Speaker Feliciano Belmonte’s P65 million for Quezon City with a 2.7 million population compared to Batanes Island’s 16,000 population) because it just so happened that the lone representative of this teeny-weeny province is his wife?

 

No matter how the proponents of DAP and PDAF spin this issue, one can’t help but think that our continuing political saga Philippine style is like the fox guarding the henhouse.  

 

Can we expect a different outcome?  Of course, not!  Can we expect justice? I hope so.

 

The problem lies in the fact that the terms DAP and PDAF are unthinkingly defined to make both terms look just as good as legitimate development and planning values.  

 

The terms are so disingenuous that they remind me of a likable quotation from John Kenneth Galbraith, a leading proponent of American liberalism, when asked for the definitions of capitalism and communism. He quipped, “Under capitalism, man exploits man; under communism, it is the other way around.”

 

And so what is really the difference between DAP and PDAF?  Nothing!

 

The fallacy of these development strategies is that both terms are never equally honest, factual, and right.

 

How can they be honest, factual, and right when they are highly selective and extremely partisan in nature?

 

How can they be honest, factual, and right when there is no transparency and accountability? 

 

How can they be honest, factual, and right when their proponents are allegedly being deceitful by making untrue claims or making misleading statements?  

 

I think both DAP and PDAF must not be treated as development strategies of the executive or legislative bodies at all, but rather the actual developmental outcomes for those who are supposed to be the recipients of the discretionary disbursements – the towns and cities whose constituencies are still waiting for their fair share and demanding that their money is spent judiciously by those whom they entrusted with power to govern them.

 

And the only way we can point out whether the discretionary disbursement of the funds measures up to its intended outcome is to demand transparency and accountability from those who are involved in the scam, implicit and explicit.   

 

This is where I find the role of the news media as mandatory and indispensable not only in its advocacy of serious and no-nonsense development and planning, but also, in being honest, factual, and right. 

 

One of the most important ways for our people to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is for the news media to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

 

This means, facts and more facts.  I dare say that it is not the news media's responsibility to just present both sides on DAP and PDAF.  When it comes to a lie, the news media must not cease in calling a lie, a lie.

 

The end game for the news media is always to verify the truthful statements, to present the facts, to debunk the lies and to honestly inform the people about what is really happening. 

 

Our people want the truth, they deserve the truth, and a successful economy and country requires the truth! — GMA News