Next gov’t legal move on DAP known Monday night

President Aquino (in photo) will announce the government’s next legal move when he addresses the nation Monday night, two weeks after the Supreme Court declared his Disbursement Acceleration Program unconstitutional. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–President Aquino will announce the government’s next legal move when he addresses the nation Monday night, two weeks after the Supreme Court declared his Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) unconstitutional.

The emerging consensus as of Sunday was to file a motion for reconsideration seeking to clarify the portion of the ruling that ascribes bad faith to officials who had implemented DAP-funded projects.

The government has until July 19 to appeal the decision.

Malacañang earlier questioned why the Supreme Court decision was extending “criminal liability” not only to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad but also to other Cabinet officials who implemented projects funded by savings he had pooled under the DAP.

The ruling would hit “good men” like Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Education Secretary Armin Luistro, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda earlier said.

But with the high court junking the DAP by a 13-0 vote, Malacañang is no longer inclined to fight for its constitutionality anymore, the Inquirer has learned.

The motion, if it would be filed at all, would center on the ruling that the doctrine of operative fact could apply only to projects “that can no longer be undone and whose beneficiaries relied in good faith on the validity of the DAP.”

Not panicking

The doctrine upholds actions undertaken under a law before it was declared illegal. “It nullifies the void law or executive act but sustains its effects,” the court said.

Quoting Justice Arturo Brion during the deliberations, the Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine “cannot apply to authors, proponents and implementers of the DAP, unless there are concrete findings of good faith in their favor by the proper tribunals determining their criminal, civil, administrative and other liabilities.”

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma on Sunday said the President would seek to “clarify” issues surrounding the DAP in his nationally televised address at 6 p.m.

“That’s the objective of the President,” he said over Radyo ng Bayan, rejecting the idea that Aquino was “panicking” over the controversy.

Coloma said the President had already read the entire Supreme Court decision, including the concurring opinions, before sitting down with members of his Cabinet to work out the government’s response.

Coloma said the decision had a “deep and wide-ranging implication on our government and even our people.”

Chat with ‘bosses’

“The President is asking for a chance to speak with his ‘bosses,’ the Filipino people, to shed light on issues confronting our country,” he said.

At the start of the Cabinet meeting on Friday, the President announced that Abad offered to resign the day before. But he said he had rejected the resignation, arguing that to accept it was “to assign to him a wrong and I cannot accept the notion that doing right by our people is wrong.”

Vice President Jejomar Binay, whose United Nationalist Alliance has been criticizing the DAP, was the lone Cabinet member who was seen not applauding Aquino’s decision on Abad, as shown in an official Malacañang video.

Binay later issued a statement saying he respected the decision as “a prerogative of the President.”