Thanks to the SC for their independence

Before the Oct.15th earthquake smashed Bohol and Cebu and before the strongest typhoon that struck planet earth, supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international code name Haiyan) devastated the islands of Central Visayas, notably Leyte, Samar, Northern Cebu and Panay… our country was in the midst of a political storm called the P10-billion Napoles scam that was perpetrated by Janet Lim-Napoles with the help of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and Sen. Bong Revilla and a number of congressmen.

Democracy in this country was a farce because Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III was in full control of the supposedly separate and independent branches of the Philippine government, notably, the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of the government. Yes, we heard that even the Judiciary was “scared” of the power that Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III wielded and used to the hilt when he orchestrated the ouster by impeachment of Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona.

Things for the Philippines got worse when Pres. Aquino signed the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill into a law last December 2012. However, just when we thought that things were simply hopeless, suddenly things started to change in just a couple of months after the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) ordered the consecration of the Philippines to the Immaculate Heart of Mary last June 8th as a way to stymie the anti-Catholic stand of Pres. PNoy Aquino.

Didn't the Lord Jesus Christ say in Luke 12:3  “So, whatever you have said in the dark will come to men's hearing in the light, and what you have said secretly inside the house will be made public from the house-tops.” In less than four months after that consecration the P10-billion Napoles scam was revealed in the public eye. Who would have believed that this would be brought out into the open by a whistleblower?

Then out of the blue, we suddenly heard about that new animal called the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that was cleverly devised by Department of Budget and Management (DMB) Secretary Florencio Abad where savings from delayed projects was collected by the millions of pesos for the personal use of Pres. PNoy Aquino.

Then we had the Oct. 15th earthquake that shattered Bohol and Cebu and now we're in a nationwide calamity mode because of supertyphoon “Yolanda”, which I strongly believe that was in a way God-sent because it is a way to cleanse the Filipino people for greater glory ahead. This supertyphoon may have been very destructive and killed thousands, but the true heart of the Filipino people was revealed, seen by the whole world on international TV where we reaped praises that resulted into the whole community of nations swooping down to Mactan Airbase with plane loads of relief goods and foreigners who were willing to help our beleaguered people.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court in an en banc vote of 14-0 with 1 abstention declared the Priority Development Assistance Program (PDAF) a.k.a “pork barrel” as unconstitutional! This decision was authored by Associate Justice Estela Perlas Bernabe that declared the entire 2013 PDAF as unconstitutional and therefore null and void. This in my book will trigger a political storm never seen before in the Philippine political landscape.

In my book, it was very comforting to hear no less than House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. making a declaration that the House of Representatives would not even seek a motion for reconsideration. Therefore this Supreme Court ruling is legal and binding as we speak.

In declaring the PDAF as unconstitutional, it also nullified “All legal provisions of past and present congressional pork barrel laws, such as the previous PDAF and Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) articles and various congressional insertions, which authorized legislators whether individually or collectively organized into committees---to intervene, assume or participate in any of the various post-enactment stages of the budget execution.”

Thank you to the men and women of the Supreme Court (SC) whom we mistakenly thought was already firmly in the pocket of Pres. PNoy Aquino for showing not only courage and righteousness but also for giving the Filipino people that hope that at least, one independent branch of the Philippine government could still be trusted to help the Filipino people in their hour of need…when they thought things were so hopeless.

With the PDAF now unconstitutional, for sure the DAP will also be declared unconstitutional. What the Supreme Court has done is stir up the political landscape and remove the very incentive why politicians run for public office, so they could use that money as if it were their private bank accounts. We shall be writing more on the fallout of this great SC decision!

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