What good faith? Written by Ninez Cacho-Olivares Friday, 25 July 2014 00:00 font size Print 9 comments Noynoy is making things worse for himself as he continues to blast the Supreme Court, and even went to the extent of claiming that while the SC picks on him and the cross border transfers from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) the Executive department has done, the high court itself engaged in such unconstitutional transfers. Noynoy should realize that his continued lying to the people on his “good faith” claim can always be contradicted, and with solid proof, such as the answer of the high court to his constant harangues against the SC’s utilization of cross border funds. Yesterday, the SC, in a resolution made it clear that it had turned down Malacañang’s offer to provide the tribunal P100 million of its pooled savings offer this year. Recall that Noynoy, in his latest speech commemorating the 150th anniversary of Apolinario Mabini, claimed that the SC had requested from the Executive branch P100 million for the construction of the Malabon Hall of Justice, which would be taken from the funds of the Department of Justice (DoJ), It turns out however, that Noynoy again came up with another lie, or another misleading explanation, to be polite. Noynoy said that his Chief Justice, Lourdes Sereno, had requested fP100 million to be taken from the funds of the DoJ for the construction of the Hall of Justice. And this, he stressed, can be considered a cross-border transfer of funds act. But it appears that which Sereno had asked for was merely an extension of the validity of the P100-million allocation up to the end of this year, which was denied by Butch Abad. Then came the letter from Abad. In its resolution, the SC said, Abad’s offer, after declining the request of Sereno was by informing the SC of the availability of a portion of the pooled savings to augment the Judiciary’s capital outlay in the fiscal year 2013 budget, asking what the “Court would like to do with the pooled savings that have been processed for release to the Judiciary.” Sereno’s request was not for additional funds, but for merely a year’s extension — which is quite different from what was being claimed by Noynoy in his speech blasting the high court. The SC then withdrew the request upon the recommendation of the Halls of Justice committee chairman, Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco. In effect, there was no such cross border funds and no request for additional funding, yet Noynoy was trying to blacken the high court’s integrity and reputation by claiming that the high court, like the Executive, engaged in cross border transfers, and while the court ruled that this was unconstitutional on the part of Malacañang, it was not unconstitutional for the SC to engage in the same act. See just how lies are being spun by Noynoy and his speechwriters? What is more likely is that Noynoy’s appointed Chief Justice, known to make decisions on her own without consulting the rest of the body, made that request of an extension of the validity of the pooled savings to Malacañang. But as Justice Velasco, along with the other justices, called for the withdrawal of the request, this was withdrawn by the high court. As the court stated in its resolution that the court “declines the offer contained in the January 10, 2014 letter of Secretary Florencio Abad to avail of a portion of the pooled savings.” It is evident that Noynoy is desperate and uses all means to get the SC to reverse its decision on the DAP issue, to the point of making misleading statements, which can be termed as lies. Noynoy is apparently deathly scared of being hauled to court and charged with plunder or at the very least malversation of public funds after he steps out of Malacañang, which is why he and his officials and allies, keep on insisting that they all acted in good faith. Hell, even deliberately coming up with misleading statements is hardly a sign of good faith. Bullying the SC and its justices, and spinning lies to the public to evade accountability and court charges he faces after June 2016, isn’t going to do him, and his administration, any good.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 09:54:27 +0000
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