Sabotage

For keen observers of the Philippine economy, 2011 has been a riddle. Now, we might be on the verge of solving it.

For years, notwithstanding the 2008 global financial meltdown, the Philippine economy gathered steam. By 2010, our economy posted a record 7% GDP growth rate after 40 quarters of uninterrupted expansion. Even as the economies of our major trading partners slid in and out of recession, the Philippine economy trudged on at an accelerating pace. Clearly, we have managed to break the boom-and-bust cycle that manacled our economy for generations.

Then, in 2011, our growth rate drastically halved. That is like a large steamship stopping on a dime, screeching to a stop. So many potential jobs were lost because of that. So much in terms of poverty alleviation dissipated.

Everybody agreed the sudden economic slowdown was due to a dramatic fall in public sector spending — the second crucial leg that enables an economy to run.

We all thought the sudden drop in public sector spending was due to the sheer clumsiness and bizarre zealotry of a new administration unfamiliar with the vital dynamics between the public and private sectors of the national economy. In short, even with the most malice, we could only suspect stupidity on the part of this new regime.

The truth, it now appears, is much more sinister, much more sophisticated.

It now appears the Aquino administration deliberately curtailed spending programs to produce a budget within the budget well beyond the pale of Congress’ power over the purse. The curtailed spending produced at least P72 billion in “savings” eventually deployed to buy Congress to undermine the judiciary — in a word, to scuttle the checks-and-balances on which our democracy runs.

If true, this is a gruesome crime against both our constitutional order and our economy. The dramatic drop in the 2011 growth rate appears now to be the consequence of systematic sabotage through budgetary machination.

Over P72 billion in “savings” never happened in the ordinary course of things. This surprising feat can only happen by way of comprehensive manipulation of the budget to the point of subverting Congress’ power over the purse.

Former budget secretary Ben Diokno asked current budget secretary Butch Abad what the term “savings” in the now notorious “disbursement allocation program” (DAP) really means. Abad has not honored his distinguished predecessor with a reply.

If the President scuttles programs funded through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) to produce “savings” (eventually consolidated into a humungous presidential pork barrel), is this legal? The Philippine Constitutional Association (Philconsa), Joker Arroyo, Miriam Santiago, constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas and Fr. Ranhilo Aquino says the DAP is illegal. The Philconsa filed a petition before the Supreme Court.

This is a serious constitutional question. The best the Supreme Court can do now is to issue a restraining order on further payouts through the DAP to prevent this anomaly from further eroding our constitutional order.

At least now we have a clearer idea about why our economic growth surprisingly collapsed in 2011. Billions in public funds were commandeered to a shadowy disbursement program for use according to the President’s whim.

Unhinged

Justice Secretary de Lima should please enlighten my simple mind: How can an arrest order issued by an inferior court stand after a superior court decided the case that caused that warrant no longer stands?

How can a door still be what it is after it has been unhinged?

I know lawyers reason in mysterious ways, but this one takes the cake.

Last week, the Court of Appeals (CA) denied the DoJ’s motion for reconsideration on an earlier ruling that found de Lima guilty of grave abuse of discretion when she formed a second panel to overrule the first on the matter involving former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother Mario. The first panel dismissed the case against the brothers. The CA found no reason why the findings of the first panel should be reversed.

The arrest warrant issued by a Palawan court against the brothers Reyes was based on the recommendations of the second panel handpicked by de Lima, with so much prejudgment apparent. The findings of the second panel was, precisely, trashed by the CA. 

There seems to be powerful forces, in both Puerto Princesa and Manila, bent on peddling prejudgment of this case — perhaps to cover up the real instigators for the murder of Gerry Ortega or to deny the brothers opportunity to regain their place in Palawan politics. The brothers deserve due process in this case, which is exactly what the CA decision insists on.

So intent are those forces on destroying the Reyes bothers, they have seized upon the current controversy over the Malampaya funds to try and drag in the former governor into the controversy. There is a whale of a difference, however, between the slice of Malampaya funds accessed by the provincial government under Reyes and the pork barrel funds that have now produced plunder charges.

Consistent with the defined purposes of the Malampaya fund, the share that went to the provincial government was used to install 4,000 solar home systems bringing power to the off-grid communities of the province. Several hundred million in Malampaya funds went to the province’s two congressional districts as well as the City of Puerto Princesa. It is this portion now running into audit issues.

At any rate, de Lima’s position on the matter of the arrest warrants for the brothers Reyes seems to put her once again in collision course with the courts.