Today the greatest scandal to hit our beloved country is the abuse and misuse of billions of hard earned money of the poor. Two weeks ago the whistle-blowers in the pork barrel scam narrated in detail before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee how Janet Napoles was able to steal pork barrel funds of national lawmakers. Last week, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, one of the accused in the pork barrel scam, focused on a new fund, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) under the Office of the President.
The release and use of the DAP has been questioned by several senators, former Senator Joker Arroyo and some members of civil society. President Aquino and Budget Secretary Butch Abad said their use of the fund, sourced from savings of the government, was legal and constitutional.
Arroyo questioned the fund because the DAP is not found in the General Appropriations Act or national budget.
In the Philippine Constitution the pertinent provision can be found in Article 6 sec 25. Par 5 which states that “No law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations. However the president, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and heads of Constitutional Commissions may by law be authorized to augment any item in the General Appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations.”
A close look at this provision shows that the Constitution allows only saving in certain offices to augment budget items found in the General Appropriations Act and authorization by Congress is needed.
Senator Arroyo said the DAP is not supported in the Appropriations Law or any other law. Some lawmakers were not even aware the DAP exists.
What then is the basis of the government to spend public money when there is no law that addresses the concern? Once again the Constitution is very clear in Article 6 sec 29 Par. 1: “No money shall be paid out of the treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.”
The provision is clear that any government money spent requires authorization made by law. There is a need for an appropriation in order to release public funds. In this case, Malacañang has not shown any appropriation that authorized the release and use of the money.
Today there is a serious threat to impeach the president over the use of the DAP even as the administration is so confident it has challenged detractors to bring it on and file an impeachment complaint.
The political reality is that it would be highly improbable to impeach President Aquino especially that nearly all national lawmakers received pork barrel funds from the Office of the President either as PDAF or DAP.
Now I can say that the President cannot live without the pork barrel. As a matter of fact, the President made use of the pork barrel during the impeachment Corona’s trial and needs the lawmakers for his political survival.
I don’t expect members of Congress to file an impeachment complaint against President Aquino or even entertain plans of doing so. The Liberal Party is the dominant party and its leaders in both houses have received some sort of pork barrel from the President, including Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte.
What President Aquino is doing is unprecedented in political history. Never has Congress had so much money at its disposal than today under Aquino’s administration which advocates good governance and honesty in government while many people remain poor and can barely eat three times a day.
I am at a loss as to what to do. I stood and fought the evils of the Marcos regime and supported the ouster of Joseph Estrada as president. But apparently nothing much has changed. Filipinos continue to struggle to search for an honest and prudent government that takes utmost care of taxpayers’ money.