Right
before typhoon Glenda hit the country at around 6:00 in the afternoon last Monday,
President Benigno Aquino III delivered a televised speech defending the Disbursement
Acceleration Program (DAP). Glenda crossed the Bataan-Zambales area Wednesday
afternoon before exiting to the West Philippine Sea later in the day. Many
municipalities were submerged with flood especially the coastal barangays and
those near riverbanks. Classes at all levels were suspended and major
thoroughfares across Occidental Mindoro were cut. Low-lying areas in San Jose
are submerged with water. All over the country, Glenda has left at least 38 people dead with initial reports indicating damage to infrastructure and
agriculture could be extensive.
No
less than Occidental Mindoro Representative Josephine Ramirez-Sato, a staunch
Aquino ally was, according to reports, personally
invited by the President to witness to the Chief Executive’s airing of 14-page,
23- minute speech. As one of her constituents, I am deeply honored seeing her
with the president along with few selected officials and personalities
personally handpicked by the president.
But
while there are groups who believe that Aquino is liable for culpable violation
of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for authorizing the creation
of DAP where key provisions of which have been declared unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court, the president’s local political supporters are right behind him
in justifying his handling of the 149 billion DAP.
Upon
seeing Congresswoman Ramirez-Sato on television right there when PNoy delivered
his speech, these questions suddenly came to mind: Does the president, like in
his home province Tarlac, have a pet project here in Occidental Mindoro under
DAP? If yes, what and where specifically are those projects? Our people would
be very happy if somebody from the concerned offices would educate us on this. Budget
secretary Florencio Abad and even President Aquino himself claims that the DAP
was designed to stimulate the economy but the people of Occidental Mindoro have
no idea how it worked here, how we are benefiting or about to benefit from it or how it would help our local economy.
Pardon
me but the first thing that came to my mind last Monday when the president
speak about DAP is not the boosting of local economy here in Occidental
Mindoro. What I immediately realized are the big allocations of money and
transfer of funds among government agencies and the freezing of millions of
pesos of money in some institutions’ coffer. Like the payment by the Bureau of
Customs of its P2.8 billion debts to the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. and
the payment by DepEd of its P4.1 billion debts to the Government Service
Insurance System or GSIS, among others. My brain maybe selective but that’s how
it worked that night.
While
I believe that there’s nothing wrong with using the savings of the executive
department to stimulate economy (assuming that Malacanan people are not lying and
in good faith) the so-called power of the purse or the national budget belongs
solely to the Congress. And being a veteran legislator, our representative definitely
knows that. Any realignment of budget to other projects not provided in the
General Appropriations Act or GAA should still pass through Congress in the
form of supplemental budget.
They,
the Aquino supporters here in my place, said that DAP and PDAF are different.
They say, “Sa PDAF ni Napoles may kurapsyon. May
mga pulitiko at mga bogus na NGO na nakinabang, samantalang sa DAP naman ay
walang pandarambong na nangyari. Hindi naman kumita dito si Abad at si PNoy!” Sorry
but I am into opinion that the DAP and PDAF
are one and the same in terms of demonstrated lack of respect for public
funds, social and government institutions and the Constitution. Remember, not all
unethical acts and scandals are categorized as corruption!
But
I am not into PNoy’s impeachment, to make myself clear. For me, it’s just a waste
of time and resources since impeachment is just a political process and in the
end it is only the politicians, its main players, would play the numbers game.
On the other hand, I am also not in favor of the filing of TRO against the
recent Supreme Court’s ruling on DAP for it would result to more constitutional
and legal vacuum if not chaos. But I’ll reserve that for another blog entry.
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(Photo: Rappler)
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