DAP and its ripple effect on the Aquino government
Finally I am back home from my US vacation. It was also a special vacation from my cellphone as the roaming service on my iPhone did not work and worse of all, my iPhone flew out of my pocket when I took the Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster at the Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Whenever I get back from my foreign trips, it gets me in a depressed mood because I came from the US - a nation that has an obsession for efficiency, especially from people who work in the government, while great numbers of our government people are just too inefficient for the good of the nation.
A case in point was that massive underground intersection along their eight-lane freeway that I saw in Houston, Texas that was not there when I last visited Houston back in 2006. Compare this to what we have in Cebu City the widening of the Escario St. extension which was less than 400 yards and the M. Velez St. widening that still has not been completed until now.
If only we had new reforms in the Department of Public Works & Highways where no Christmas bonuses would be released until projects are completed, maybe this is the only way this can force our government people to straighten up and give priority to infrastructure projects. Believe me this is so frustrating and it is one of the major reasons why we are considered a 3rd world country because of our 3rd world mentality!
But I did get some great news when I arrived home that finally the Supreme Court unanimously declared the Disbursement Acceleration Program as unconstitutional! I doff my hat to the Supreme Court Justices for their bravery and independence! Weeks before this decision came out, there so many rumors that Malacañang already bought some Justices. But now we can put those rumors at rest for the Supreme Court has chosen to side with history and the Filipino people.
The Supreme Court declared as illegal the so-called unobligated allotments from implementing agencies and their use as savings before the end of the fiscal year, including the cross-border transfers of savings of the executive to augment funds of agencies outside the departments as well as funding of projects and programs not covered in the General Appropriations Act which were also declared as unconstitutional.
So the big question now that everyone is asking is what would happen to Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III in doing something unconstitutional? I have no doubt that Pres. PNoy is up to his head in this. Before the SC decision, Malacañang was vehemently defending the DAP. More importantly, certain people have documents of the President's involvement in the DAP.
There is an October 12, 2011 memorandum from the Office of the Budget and Management, which said, "Mr. President, this is to confirm your approval of the Disbursement Acceleration Program totally P72.11 Billion. We are already working with all the agencies concern for the immediate execution of the projects therein." Below this statement are the various projects detailing where the monies would go and below this is the signature of DBM Sec. Butch Abad and signed by Pres. PNoy Aquino.
If you ask me, this is the smoking gun that the President signed something that is now considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. So what should we do with Pres. Aquino? At the very least, we should ask for the head of DBM Sec. Butch Abad and if this fellow does not resign, then we might as well ask for the removal of Pres. PNoy Aquino!
Meanwhile it is interesting to read a press release from Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago who like many Filipinos hailed the decision of the Supreme Court to declare the DAP as unconstitutional, saying that she anticipated this to happen because as she said, "It's a no brainer. The DAP is illegal because it was not contained in the 2011 or 2012 budgets and because the alleged savings were used to augment new budget items which was not previously authorized by Congress." There will be ripple effects from this.
Remember some years back when Barangay Captains did not implement their planned projects and since the funds were not spent, they considered this as savings and gave themselves a hefty Christmas bonuses. If Barangay Captains abused this, well, it seems that Malacañang was a bigger abuser and this document only reveals a P72.11 billion DAP. How many more DAP documents are out there for us to scrutinize?
What can we expect to happen in this particular instance? Will the funds used for those projects be stopped and returned to the National Treasury? What about those three senators who got millions from DAP? Sen. Franklin Drilon at P100 million, P99 million to Sen. Chiz Escudero and P92 million to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. Can we demand for the return of this money back to the National Treasury? What if they will not return the money? Abangan!
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