P-Noy should not blame the past administration for the anomalies and irregularities now happening in his administration. He cannot keep on citing Arroyo’s alleged misdeeds and corrupt acts to show that his administration is squeaky clean and moving towards the matuwid na daan as he repeatedly claims. He cannot divert the peoples’ attention anymore on the rampant misuse and misappropriation of the taxpayers’ money through the pork barrel system that has become more massive and brazen now. As people in the streets used to say, kumita na yan.
Indeed, the peoples’ outrage cannot be suppressed anymore especially because P-Noy stubbornly insists on handling and treating some money in the treasury as if it is his personal property that can be disposed of at his discretion, instead of a public trust fund that can be disbursed only according to law. Today another million peoples’ march will be staged at Ayala Ave., Makati. And more such rallies will definitely follow unless P-Noy and his cohorts in Congress change their stubborn stand on this major source of graft and corruption. They should realize that these rallies may even lead to a major upheaval that will cause the downfall of this regime similar to the 1986 non-violent people power revolution.
The latest kind of “pork†recently discovered to have sprang out of the pig pen way back in 2011 yet are the funds under the “Development Acceleration Program†(DAP) allegedly consisting of unused items in the budget or “savings†during the previous fiscal years now totaling P72.11 billion. Budget Secretary Abad brought this out only now in connection with the recent expose about the 20 Senators who were given a total of P1.1075 billion over and above their P200 million PDAF after they voted to impeach former Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Cornona. Abad had to bring it out after first denying such disbursement when administration Senators admitted receiving such allocation, particularly Senate President Drilon who got P100 million. The people would not have known this new kind of “pork†if the post impeachment allocations to the 20 Senators were not revealed.
The creation of the DAP however runs counter to the provisions of Article VI Section 25 (5) of the Constitution. Under said Article, the President has no authority to transfer funds from one department to another or under one appropriations law to another because it would, in effect, invest him with the legislative power to appropriate. The President, or for that matter, even the Senate President, the Speaker, the SC Chief Justice or heads of the Constitutional Commissions may only augment any item in the general appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations. But even in such cases, it must be pursuant to a law. In the case of the DAP, there is no such law. In fact it was kept hidden until they were forced to bring it out. Clearly therefore there is a violation of the Constitution here.
The fact that the DAP funds allocated to the 20 Senators were put to good use does not in any way cure this apparent violation of the Constitution. This kind of reasoning that P-Noy and his cohorts have been repeatedly using is definitely unacceptable. The end, no matter how noble and desirable, does not and will never justify the ignoble and illegal means used to achieve it.
And the worst part here is the bribery angle in the use of the DAP. This angle could be readily seen in the following admitted facts: (1) it was given only to the 20 Senators who voted to impeach former CJ Corona; and (2) it was given after the Senate decision came out. These facts clearly indicate that the DAP was used as a pay off because it was given only to the Senators who voted in favor of the impeachment decision. Even if the allocations were made only after the decision does not mean that there is no bribery anymore. In fact, in most bribery cases, the bribe is delivered only after the favor has been granted to ensure that the person being bribed will comply with his commitment. And this is precisely what happened in the impeachment of Corona. Furthermore, based on the DBM website, 11 Senators were also given PDAF amounting to P500 million at the height of the impeachment trial, thus bolstering even more the bribery angle in this case.
In the light of these recent exposes and admissions, impeachable offenses have been apparently committed. Most notable here are the culpable violation of the Constitution, and graft and corruption through bribery. Of course P-Noy is bold enough and almost cocksure that it will not prosper with respect to him. Indeed he even arrogantly hurled that challenge to “go ahead and impeach me†because he knows the move will not even reach first base. It will not prosper because most members of the Lower House who will have to sign the complaint are themselves involved in the impeachable offense of graft and corrupt practices. So if they file the complaint they will in effect admit their own guilt and participation. The Senate will not also convict him because 20 of them are involved in the alleged bribery. So if they convict him they will in effect admit that they have indeed been “bribed†in impeachment case.
This is the unfortunate situation we are in now. It seems that the people are left with no other alternative but to go back to the streets for rallies and demonstrations which definitely have some adverse effects on our country. Hopefully P-Noy and other political leaders still retain even a little bit of love of country in them as to be able to listen and give in to the peoples’ legitimate demands.
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Email: attyjosesison@gmail.com