The politics of obstructionism

There is a standoff between the executive and the judicial branches of government over the issue of the Disbursement Acceleration Program. The issue has once again divided the nation reminiscent to the Corona impeachment trial a few months back.  

President Benigno Aquino III anchored his argument on Section 39 of Chapter 5, Book 6 of the  Administrative Code of 1987 as the legal basis for the implementation of DAP. The code gave the president authority to transfer government funds between programs and projects of any department, office or agency.

The Supreme Court in a vote of 13-0 declared three items of DAP as unconstitutional citing Article VI, Section 25 (5) of the 1987 Constitution which stated that the President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court were not allowed to transfer funds from their department to the other branches of government.

The bone of contention here is actually the question of what is legal and constitutional as against what is logical and practical.

The three provisions of DAP that were struck down by the SC as unconstitutional were: 1) the declaration of unobligated and unprogrammed funds which Malacañang considered as savings, 2) the cross-border transfer of savings between the executive branch and other branches of government, and 3) the funding of projects not stated in the General Appropriations Act.

Malacañang insisted that DAP was intended to deliver critical services to the people as fast as possible using savings without the government waiting for the budget year to end. It pointed out that previous administrations like Cory Aquino, Ramos and Estrada required the withholding of savings at the start of the year through a mechanism called Reserve Control Account or Overall Savings. DAP is the same dog with different collar.

Now Malacañang has turned the table against the Supreme Court's Judicial Development Fund (JDF) in a move that will further aggravate the souring relationship between the two co-equal branches. The JDF is the equivalent of pork barrel in the judiciary.

President Aquino has questioned the SC ruling by saying:  "We find it difficult to understand your decision. You had done something similar in the past, and you tried to do it again; there are even those of the opinion that what you attempted to commit was far greater."

This controversy has suddenly turned everyone into legal experts. There are doomsayers who opined of a looming constitutional crisis. There are hungry publicity-seekers who brandished documents in front of the media to file impeachment case against the president even if they knew they do not stand a chance of even seeing the light of day.

Unwittingly, it is the Supreme Court that played right into the hands of troublemakers who can never see anything good about the government. They often criticize the government without even offering a better solution. They used the media to advance their own vested interest by playing the politics of obstructionism.