The speech Noynoy delivered to defend the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was self defining for him and his administration. It was vain, arrogant and at the same time lost in direction. The public was expecting an apology or at the very least an explanation on how P150 billion in public money was thrown into a program that violated the separation of powers provisions in the Constitution. What viewers of the nationwide address got instead, was a smug Noynoy threatening the highest court of the land to see things his way or risk a constitutional crisis through a likely stalemate between the Judiciary and the Executive over DAP. Noynoy said the Palace is appealing the decision of the Supreme Court (SC), in which justices unanimously voted down the DAP as unconstitutional, and that the magistrates should now appreciate the points he raised in his speech, which were well taken up during the oral arguments and through which the justices, all of them except one who had abstained, were convinced that the DAP indeed conflicted with the Constitution. What stood out in Noynoy’s speech was his insistence that DAP was legal, citing the 1987 Administrative Code’s provision that, except as otherwise provided in the General Appropriations Act, any savings in the regular appropriations authorized in the GAA for programs and projects of any department, office or agency, may, with the approval of the President, be used to cover a deficit in any other item of the regular appropriations. The problem with this argument is that the SC had ruled the funds that went into DAP were not savings and that any sensible person would agree that an administrative order can’t supersede the Constitution. Another point he raised was that the SC ruling was difficult to understand even as it was crystal clear to many since it boiled down to declaring as illegal the withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the GAA; the cross-border transfers of savings of the executive department to offices outside the executive department; the funding of projects, activities, programs not covered by appropriations in the GAA. What does the bible say about the man who refuses to see being in a worse state than the blind? The SC also declared as void the use of unprogrammed funds despite the absence of a certification by the National Treasurer that the revenue collections exceeded the revenue targets or non-compliance with the conditions provided in the relevant GAA. The decision was hailed as restoring to their proper places the authorities of the Executive and the Legislative which were retained through the ruling of its power of the purse. Noynoy through his speech appeared to have painted the SC justices as existing in an ivory tower in their failure to appreciate the exigencies of the Palace goal to speed up government services. It was the opposite, however, since in his vanity, Noynoy failed, again, to connect with the view of many to honor the most important piece of legislation produced yearly which is the national budget. The SC decision whacked the Palace’s hand from dipping into the yearly budget and creating its own discretionary funds. It clearly defined the boundaries of the Executive’s power that Noynoy seems bent on abusing. In his arrogance, his view was restricted to within the Palace circle he sought to protect and in mentioning his report to his “Boss,” it sounded more like he was talking not to the Filipino public but to the Liberal Party. Noynoy should have not made the speech at all since he would have been better disappearing in the shadows rather than further stoking public discontent against him. Speaking to the nation the other day showed Noynoy was in total disconnect to the public pulse. tribune.net.ph/commentary/editorial/epic-disconnect
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 19:56:09 +0000
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