DAP cannot be sugar-coated

Now that the Supreme Court has declared the various acts relative to DAP as unconstitutional PNoy's spin doctors have been vocal in their defense of their boss' indiscretion in approving that patently illegal use or misuse of the peoples' money. Good faith has been repeatedly invoked in an attempt cover up the culpability of the genius behind this mother of all scams. "Evil genius" is the term used by former senator Joker Arroyo in describing PNoy's use of the Administrative Code of 1987 to justify his squander of government funds.

If PNoy is a genius, even if he is not evil, he cannot exculpate himself by claiming that he saw only the good side of what he did, not the dark one. He cannot claim good faith for a defense.

But of course such justification must have surely come from his propagandists who are now at a loss of how to defend their "amo" from the persistent flaks he is getting. This just shows that this unprecedented heist of public funds is simply indefensible in the light of the SC decision. By citing the Administrative Code, the position of PNoy has become even worse because that code was the brainchild of the dictator Marcos himself who plundered the country during his reign of greed. PNoy of course is an angel compared to that Ilocano strongman. But in this particular case, with his use of DAP which has made the country poorer by P170 billion, - he made himself no different from that man, or even worse, if one talks of sincerity. Marcos, unlike PNoy, never trumpeted something like "daang matuwid" as the banner of his governance so he could not be accused of pretending what he was not.

The PDAF anomaly is said to have damaged the national coffer to the tune of only P10 billion. That's huge money, of course, especially in a country where millions can't afford three decent meals a day. But P170 billion? The amount is astounding. How many classrooms could have been built, how many teachers hired with such money? There's DepEd's K+12 which is in dire need of funding. There are millions of malnourished school kids crying for help. But helping hands are tied for lack of money. And the government can afford to squander such gargantuan sum?

Perhaps to deflect culpability there's now an attempt to investigate the recipients of DAP who are said to be senators and congressmen. Yet the very source of the scam, PNoy himself and his trusted bag man, Florencio Abad, are not being asked to explain their roles. Why, are they not responsible for the fiasco? From their hands flowed the millions of paper bills purportedly for projects but which were purloined and got stashed as personal accounts. Yet the DOJ and the NBI seem to be looking somewhere else, why?

 Good faith could be the reason, as if good faith can be seen like a yellow ribbon on one's breast. As if good faith can be attributed to two of the country's distinguished leaders who certainly are aware of what's right and wrong in handling people's funds.

Accelerating a deluge of funds to backstop development projects may seem an acceptable excuse as far as PNoy's supporters are concerned. But an illegal act cannot be justified by good intention. That's why good faith cannot stand as an excuse for what Aquino and Abad had done. If it were so, we might as well release Senators Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla because they too claim innocence for what they are being accused of, and this implies good faiths.

"Mea culpa" was what former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said when confronted with the Hello Garci scandal. PNoy is not expected to do so, but even if he does he cannot escape prosecution the moment he steps out of Malacañang come 2016.

The fundamental law of the land has been violated by the highest official of the country who took an oath to defend it. Who can accept good faith for this?