Fr. Bernas on DAP and good faith: Good faith is an abstract term which includes a sincere belief without any malice or intent to defraud. It is a term often found in Commercial Law—e.g., a buyer who purchases from one who did not have title to the object bought may be called a buyer in good faith if he observed honesty in the transaction and observed reasonable commercial standards. To meet this test, the person must have demonstrated honesty in the conduct of the transaction concerned, and must have observed reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing in the trade. If the purchaser acquires the property by an honest contract or agreement and without knowledge of any defect in the title of the seller or means of knowledge sufficient to charge the buyer with such knowledge, the purchaser is deemed a purchaser in good faith. By analogy, if the President and the budget secretary did not know that what they were doing was illegal and could not have reasonably known its illegality and only wanted to accelerate the movement of public money for the public good, they would be in good faith. Remember, however, that what is involved here is not just peanuts but billions and billions of pesos. How believable would the claim be that the President and the budget secretary, both veterans of Congress, had no inkling or the slightest suspicion of what the Constitution requires for handling public money? Read more: opinion.inquirer.net/76342/dap-and-good-faith#ixzz36qBv2Sgg Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:39:13 +0000
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