The clincher again!

As my friend, a Tandang Sora of our time, is fond of saying —  This is the clincher!  She had not quite forgotten the title of a column I wrote in 2010 before the election when the question arose on the capability of then candidate Benigno Simeon Aquino III to run a country of 100 million people, let alone make geopolitical decisions. You might have thought that such a revelation should matter.

But there you are – it might have been the clincher — but it was quickly thrashed into the can by vested interests that had everything to gain to have an incompetent chief executive in Malacanang.

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The do-gooders are at it again. Despite the Supreme Court decision of 13-0-1) declaring the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) unconstitutional, they are discouraging any impeachment moves because “these won’t fly”. Since when has it been acceptable that crimes should not be investigated because it won’t be punished anyway. Amazing moral logic.

Why are they saying it won’t fly? I suppose it is the logic of realpolitik. If members of Congress had profited from PDAF and DAP why should they punish the person or persons who made it possible? But for a country like ours trying to build a strong rules-based nation the reason that “it won’t fly” is unacceptable.

Happily, the “clincher” has a basis in fact and it is viralling now all over social media. There is a reason, a fact that can be proven that President Benigno Simeon III cannot use the reason of “good faith” when he signed all the DAP allocations for whatever purpose these were intended.

The clincher: he was the author of Senate Bill 3121 which sought to prohibit the Executive from utilizing savings without the express consent of both the House and the Senate.  

In other words, he is or should be knowledgeable on the bill that he filed during former President Gloria Arroyo administration. Unless of course, he did not really understand what he was proposing. He knew and went ahead and did it anyway because he was now the President, not the opposition.

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This is the flaw of our presidential system of government. The impeachment process does not help in punishing malfeasance immediately (as in a parliamentary system through a no-confidence vote.) Instead a vicious circle develops and flourishes as a conspiracy of corruption between the branches in government such as we have now. In the presidential system, the different branches of government were made for check and balance but the PDAF and DAP scandals show how it can be destroyed with impunity.

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Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin did well in his 92-page decision that the “authors, proponents and implementors” of DAP must be investigated first before they can get off the hook. Such a move would not only benefit the accused. An investigation benefits the country when an otherwise apolitical public is shown how a government can be so badly handled against their interest.  In this case, it is through an impeachment (if properly conducted!) that we can know more about the workings of government.

That cause will not be served if as some have so casually suggested that we just leave it until the President finishes his term. This school of thought however would compound the malady by suggesting that the underlings can be punished instead. That would be unjust. The President is said to have signed all the DAP allocations. As Chief Executive he has the command responsibility and we now know what he knew what he was doing as the author of Senate Bill 3121. The notion of “good faith” would not apply in this case. To punish those who followed the commander but not the commander is lopsided justice.

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Conservatives, centrists, leftists — all must join this effort to find out the truth. The high ground must not be left for leftists alone to pursue the Bersamin admonition for investigation. It is disappointing that Vice-President Jejomar Binay has joined those who are against an investigation in the form of an impeachment. That adds to the long list of reasons why so many are reluctant to support “constitutional succession.”

More than ever we need good men with principle and vision for the country.

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Granted that impeachment proceedings do take place and it will be found out that the President and his budget secretary are indeed culpable, what  happens next?

It brings us back to square 1 because the same conspirators in crime will be tasked to convict him. In that sense then it would be a waste of time because the proceedings like the impeachment and conviction of CJ Corona would be perverted.  We must remember that although impeachment follows judicial procedure of rules of law and evidence, the conviction is ultimately a political act of allies and supporters of the President in Congress. That the administration has in its pocket, the very thing we are fighting against in the first place.

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So what are the people to do? Are we that hopeless and our system of government and politics so bad that the outright robbery of the national treasury could be ignored and treated so nonchalantly. For some of us who are not so badly off (ie although life has been harder for everyone) we can wait off the time. But not so for the millions of poor Filipinos suffering from a mismanaged country.

It is an emergency, a crisis with the fundamental problems of livelihood, health, jobs, education. It must be tackled with more sagacity than the present system of politics and government would allow us.

It is ironic that it should finally dawn with such force on responsible Filipinos that constitutional change is the only way out of this morass under this President, the son of the President under whose wake the 1987 Constitution came to be.

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Let me quote from a blogger who names himself as Edelros. Although it is in Pilipino, I will try to translate it.

Di kaya ang nangyayaring stalemate ay kakulangan sa operative Constitution natin na dapat iwasto ngayong mga lessons learned na tayo from a clear but rare (first time) case of presidential abuse of this magnitude and gravity?

But who will initiate constitutional change? The same bunch of people who refuse to impeach the President?

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The answer to this question is plain and simple — the people themselves as sovereign of this democratic country will have to take up this task. That is why bayanko.org.ph. was created  — to crowdsource opinions and then elect a panel to draft a new constitution for a new country. Nothing else will do.