President Benigno Aquino III INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III’s speech in defense of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was no less than a hint to the Supreme Court justices, a United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) officer said on Sunday.
“He was actually subtly exerting pressure on the Supreme Court that is why he went out of his way to sound rational and reasonable on primetime TV. But unfortunately it was not a masterful job in laying the predicate to appeal for a constitutional blunder that is DAP,” UNA secretary general Toby Tiangco said in a statement.
The Navotas City representative said the speech, broadcast on prime time television on Wednesday, was clearly intended for the SC and not just the general public.
Tiangco pointed out that Malacañang was worried that an unfavorable decision by the SC would seriously hurt the Aquino administration’s political agenda.
He said Aquino “did not intend to appease an angry mob, otherwise, the most noble act would have been giving up the President’s own pork-barrel and abolishing the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).”
He said the court, as a separate branch of government, should stand its ground.
“We hope and trust that the SC will not reverse themselves in the ruling they made in Demetria vs Alba, wherein the same mechanism used in DAP was already declared unconstitutional,” he said.
The legality of the DAP is currently being questioned in court and the next oral argument has been set for November 11.
The said speech has drawn mixed reactions from both the public and politicians. Critics said Aquino “missed the point” by defending himself instead of addressing the systemic problem while allies agreed that DAP was needed to fund crucial projects.
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