Soon everyone will be choking on ‘operative facts’

In my previous column (“DAP fallout will lead to economic and political paralysis,” July 5), I complimented the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for largely keeping itself above the fray created by the enormous DAP scandal and for doing a reasonable job of keeping an important part of the Philippines’ economic and institutional framework—the banking system—in sound shape in the face of what very well may turn out to be a chaotic collapse of the government.

It seems I may have been a little too quick with the praise, however. Over the weekend, one of The Times former reporters, Jhoanna Ballaran, jogged my memory about an article she had researched and written in early December last year, wherein she was able to detail what was then known about the beneficiaries of the condemned Disbursement Acceleration Program and the amounts those beneficiaries had received.