Unaccountable

Palace propaganda attempts to misdirect us away from the crux of the matter regarding the “disbursement acceleration program” (DAP). The propagandists want us to focus on the misuse of these funds, such as was uncovered in the Napoles scam.

The Napoles scam is under criminal investigation, which is well and good. The DAP, for its part, touches on the quality of governance our people deserve into the future. It touches on accountability and transparency in the handling of public funds. The matter is possibly a Pandora’s Box of many evils.

To begin with, no one knew about the DAP until we tripped upon it in the course of allegations about large-scale bribery of both chambers of Congress. It turns out, for instance, that congressmen were handed out pork funds right on the day they signed that hasty impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona. Senators who convicted Corona were given as much as P100 million each.

There are many facets to the controversy over the DAP.

It touches on matters of economic policy. It appears the “savings” made available to the President’s sole discretion was manufactured by commandeering allocations to the DAP. This explains the drastic drop in our GDP growth rate in 2011.

It touches on matters of constitutionality. The DAP is a budget within the budget, undermining the power over the purse rightly belonging to the legislative branch.

The administration cites some obscure item in the administrative code of Cory Aquino’s “revolutionary government” in a vain effort to legalize the DAP. Former budget secretary Ben Diokno correctly points out, however, that this code was superseded by the 1987 Constitution which rebuilds our democracy on the principle of separation of powers.

This aspect is critical. It is increasingly apparent the DAP was used to bribe the legislative branch to impeach the Chief Justice. In one blow, the independence of both the legislative and judicial branches was sabotaged.

There is substance, therefore, to Joker Arroyo’s concept of “budget dictatorship.” There is substance, as well, to his characterization of this administration, with its propensity to intimidate critics through bullying tactics, as a “fascist” regime — blinded by its own zealotry.

Since the DAP was never announced until we tripped on it, this raises serious issues about accountability and transparency.

When he was running for the presidency, President Aquino promised a regime of transparency founded on freedom of information of citizens. Since he assumed office, however, Aquino has been most hesitant to support the Freedom of Information bill. To date, it remains unclassified as a priority measure. Things like the DAP may explain the hesitation.

Add to all these the controversial Malampaya Fund. Senator Ralph Recto insists that P130 billion of this fund cannot be accounted for. All the DBM and the Palace has to do is to detail how the money from this earmarked fund was spent and where the rest of the money is (and how much interest it has accumulated). Budget Secretary Butch Abad has not done that.

The way the DBM has been so reluctant to release information on so many things relating to the PDAF and the DAP, it seems like we are being treated to a painfully slow striptease act.

The way more and more sectors in our society have been pressing for information to be released, there could be more explosive revelations down this road. Already, there is a growing sense that government has betrayed its people. With key institutions losing legitimacy fast, we are not too far from failing into a condition of failed state, as Miriam Santiago warns.

Pork barrel state

How can a pork barrel state function if pork is denied it?

The pork barrel state we have grown accustomed to is now in a moment of grave crisis. The Supreme Court, wisely interpreting the fundamental law, could declare both the PDAF and the DAP illegal.

For decades, since Cory Aquino introduced the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF), the subordination of the legislative branch to the executive was assured through de facto bribery by means of pork. Like barnacles on a dead ship of state, a dynastic political class entrenched itself using pork-enabled patronage politics.

If this administration is so adamant in its defense of pork, particularly presidential pork, it is because it has no other instrument for keeping our notoriously rapacious politicians in line, at the beck and call of the Palace. In three years, it undermined the independence of both the legislative and judicial branches using pork. It will feel naked without the means to bribe.

If both the PDAF and the DAP are declared unconstitutional, this will be a major blow against pork barrel politics, against the gross corruption that this brings and against the dynastic political class that relies on patronage politics to subsist. This will happen only if the High Court somehow rediscovers its independence at a moment when our people are in the streets saying enough is enough. Tama na, Sobra na!

The denial of pork by means of reinstating the constitutional order so badly damaged by this regime will have economic costs, no doubt. The free spending of pork funds will end. Public spending, given the chill this scandal created among bureaucrats, will likely be constricted. At the moment, government executives are so terrified of spending they will refuse to sign contracts or release public funds. This scandal will have long-term costs. We could see the 2011 drop in our GDP growth rate happening again, this time as collateral damage to a scandal that widens by the day.

A constitutional crisis could translate into a general political crisis, a crisis of regime.