I was expecting too much. I was wrong with my gut feel for tomorrow: gut feel by leny manalo Testing the waters for SONA By Monday morning everyone knew the President will be speaking to the nation again live on all television networks. Apparently the administration decided to do a preliminary rebuttal of the main issues hurled against it to allow some room for changes in the coming SONA depending on the public reaction to this probe. The move was understandable considering the series of press blunders Palace spokesmen committed, especially in trying to diminish the negative effects of the Supreme Court ruling that the Disbursement Acceleration Program violated the Constitution on several grounds consequently spawning moves to impeach the President. Critics and supporters alike were anticipating the pre-SONA presidential address to the nation that finally was scheduled in the evening, not morning, to the consternation of opinion writers who wanted their pieces on the following day’s issue. Only the mainstream dailies were expected to delay print to accommodate the story on front page and include the quick reactions of their columnists. The evening schedule however bought time for the militants to mobilize for a rally to coincide with the multi-network address on the same day. Knowing the cut-off time for this paper, this writer nevertheless decided to submit this column without waiting for the presidential address to be just consistent with the column’s title, gut feel. As early as October this year the President defended the Disbursement Acceleration Program stressing that DAP was not pork that was pocketed by corrupt officials. He said that DAP actually boosted the economy citing World Bank estimate that placed DAP responsible for 1.3% to the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2011. In succeeding days however it was revealed that some DAP funds were allocated for lawmakers who supported the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona and some of that money could even have actually passed through the NGOs of Janet Napoles. An independent study by IBON using government-supplied data showed that the DAP did not stimulate the economy: it did not contribute to one-fourth of the 2011 growth as claimed; it was not large enough to have an impact on the whole economy; and it was not spent on projects that immediately boosted consumer and investment spending. The President still has a lot more explaining to do. Senator Chiz Escudero in a high profile blitz pointed to Budget Secretary Butch Abad as the main culprit but the President just decided to stick it out with Abad and turned down his offer of resignation. UNA Secretary General and Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco has urged the President to stop defending those liable for violating the Constitution in implementing the DAP. Meanwhile the move to impeach President Benigno Aquino may not be turning to a ground swell just yet but it nevertheless could add to the worry of the administration for its possible disruptive effect once boosted by another wrong step such as a SONA not acceptable to the people. A failed SONA will trigger an early realignment of political forces for 2016 that could weaken the pro-administration alliance in both houses of Congress. My gut feeling by Monday morning was that the President would announce that DAP has been officially abandoned and all funds are being audited but without conceding his position that it was all done in good faith. I could be wrong on that but whatever would be said eventually in that national address will set the tone for the coming SONA that will surely be aimed to serve as the breakwater to mitigate the impact of the growing wave of public dissatisfaction that recent surveys indicated.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 10:40:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015