TRO

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether a temporary restraining order be issued against further use of the notorious “disbursement acceleration program” (DAP).

The DAP, we will recall, was the mechanism by which over a billion in additional pork was transferred to the senators who voted to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona. Many have interpreted this additional pork allocation a bribe. In a separate complaint former congressman Augusto Syjuco filed with the Ombudsman, both Senate President Franklin Drilon and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad were accused of bribery. In addition, Syjuco filed plunder and graft complaints against Drilon for questionable transactions involving the Iloilo Hall of Justice, the purchase of overpriced land for the airport and other substandard projects funded through the senator’s pork allocation.

The hearing was triggered by an urgent motion filed last Monday by Syjuco. The basis of that urgent motion is an earlier petition filed before the Court asking that the DAP be declared illegal and unconstitutional. It was precipitated by a statement made last week by presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda that additional calamity funds will be sourced using the DAP.

The petition argues that, to begin with, there is ample calamity funds to meet the needs of providing relief to the victims of the Bohol quake. The DBM website proudly announced that there was still over P6 billion in the calamity fund.

Even if the calamity funds are running low, that could not be an excuse to use what the petitioner argues is a patently illegal and unconstitutional procedure. This procedure (DAP) involves the executive branch defying the Congress’ power over the purse in impounding expenditure items, fabricating them into “savings” and disbursing them at whim for things not defined in the general appropriations act (such as the P100 million dispensed to each senator who voted to convict Corona).

A number of respected constitutional experts have opined that the DAP was unconstitutional. It breaches the separation of powers and basically puts in place a “fiscal autocracy.” In fact, the Philippine Constitutional Association (Philconsa) itself filed a separate petition asking the High Court to declare the DAP unconstitutional.

Tomorrow’s argumentation will provide us a preview of the more extended discussion over the several petitions questioning the constitutionality of the DAP. Should a TRO be issued on the basis of Syjuco’s urgent motion, that will be interpreted as a major gain for those opposing the DAP. It will also be interpreted as an indicator of judicial opinion on the matter.

That will be bad news for the Palace.

The Aquino administration has been adamant in its intention to continue using the DAP mechanism to realign “savings” for expenditure items the executive branch alone defines. Unchecked by the Court, this shocking practice of impounding budget allocations and dispensing the “savings” to entirely new purposes will likely continue remorselessly.

As in the martial law cases of 1972-73, the Supreme Court has become the crucial battleground for a citizenry concerned over unbridled executive power. Unlike the old Supreme Court that demurred from things considered “political,” the present magistrates are specifically empowered by the 1987 Constitution so that it becomes a bulwark for the public interest.

It should not shirk from the awesome powers this presidency has begun to arrogate unto itself.

Monument

Every province and every district, it seems, has its own distinctive monument to corruption associated with the pork barrel.

In Iloilo, the most distinctive monument has to be the imperiled Hall of Justice.

That edifice was constructed at the instance of Franklin Drilon when he served as Cory Aquino’s justice secretary. The building was constructed at the cost of P200 million using poor engineering techniques and substandard materials. Soon after, the building was condemned when cracks appeared all over.

To save face, Drilon, when he was senator, allocated P50 million more from his PDAF to “retrofit” the crumbling edifice. When the DPWH district engineer insisted the building has structural defects that could not be cured by retrofitting, the powerful senator worked to have him replaced. The retrofitting happened, using pork barrel funds and a dubious contractor.

At least two judges, however, chose to retire early rather than occupy a building that could crumble on them.

Today, after the Bohol earthquake, the edifice looks more tenuous than ever before. The engineers want it completely condemned; the politician wants it perpetuated.

This time around, the engineering experts must prevail. Otherwise, the stage could be set for a tragedy no one wants to see happen. If the Iloilo Hall of Justice was a bit closer to the epicenter of last week’s quake, the force of nature should have completed what politics prevented the demolition crews from justly doing.

There are other monuments to the folly of pork (mainly Drilon’s) around Iloilo. There is a bridge that is slowly sinking into the sea. There is a promenade poorly built. Then there is that large dam built at exactly the point where two fault lines intersect. If that dam breaks during a quake, the casualty toll will run into the tens of thousands.

Then there is the story of land acquired for the new airport that was reclassified from agricultural to residential, translating into an astronomical increase in price on the eve of government purchase. That piece of land, now part of the airport complex, was transferred without approval of the agrarian reform authorities.

These are some of the interesting stories detailed in Syjuco’s graft and plunder complaints filed against Drilon — and which the Senate President simply dismisses as “politically motivated.”