If there is one thing that we have to thank about Sen. Jingoy Estradas alleged involvement in pork barrel scam is his exposé of the bribed money paid to the senators who convicted CJ Renato Corona. As it turned out, & as the DBM was forced to admit, the money w/c was supposed to be additional pork barrel given to senators was sourced from the DAP, an esoteric program created under the current administration purportedly envisioned to spur economic growth. The DAP is under fire from various sectors because of the perceived chicanery in w/c this program was created. The DAP funds are supposed to be accumulated savings from the different projects from line agencies including windfall dividends comings from GOCCs like PCSO & GSIS. Questions are being raised however why funds for unfinished projects are considered savings & diverted to DAP. Savings is only said to be realized if the project is completed & its purpose is purely satisfied. There are also suspicions that budget for certain projects of DPWH that are included in the GAA are deliberately bloated so that savings would be accumulated thus pipelined to DAP. P-Noy would then boast to the people that his administration was able to accumulate vast savings from so & so projects, thanks to their prudent spending untainted w/ corruption. What we were not told then & could have been kept secret from the media was the full discretionary power of the president over these funds w/c he can channel to any project of his choice. With the DAP, not only can he fund projects not included in the GAA but likewise deprived congress of its constitutional mandate over the purse. This self-proclaimed presidential prerogative was pronounced illegal & unconstitutional by legal luminaries & constitutionalists. Granting that the president is a rare species that belongs to higher moral plane who can be trusted for his honesty, how about the people around him? The officials at the forefront of the projects- can we also trust them the way we trust P-Noy? For sure that may be asking too much. And besides there has been so many instances in the past that the chief executive was reported to be clueless or may have just been pretending to be clueless on whats happening around him. But as the events now are unfolding it seems the rectitude that the president had shown in the initial stage of his governance is now eroding or just simply a farce.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 22:52:03 +0000
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