Late last week, his administration filed a motion for reconsideration of
the Supreme Court decision that struck down two items in its Disbursement
Acceleration Program (DAP).
By a
vote of 14-0 the Philippine Supreme Court had decided that the two items
violated the constitutional provision that the president, the senate president,
the speaker and the chief justice can only transfer their budgetary savings to
within “their respective offices.”
One such
fund transfer was to the House of Representatives, the other to the Commission
on Audit, an independent body. Neither are under the Office of the President.
Therefore the transfers were unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled.
In its
motion for reconsideration, the government maintains that the “cross border
fund transfers” were constitutional, that the transfers were above board, and
that the mechanism used to incur savings under the DAP have existed in previous
administrations under the present constitution.
The
motion also argues that bad faith should not be imputed to authors, proponents
and implementors of the DAP; they should enjoy presumption of innocence and
regularity in the performance of their official functions and duties. In their
original arguments earlier this year, government lawyers cited provisions of
the Administrative Code of 1987, which was issued by President Corazon Aquino,
the incumbent’s late mother. There seems to be no new arguments in the motion
for reconsideration.
It’s a
no-brainer, however. No administrative code or even act of Congress for that
matter, can prevail in a clash with the constitution. I can’t see 14 hard-nosed
justices changing their minds now just because President Aquino wages a word
war against them.
He has
gone as far as making threats: “My message to the Supreme Court: we don’t want
to get to the point where two co-equal branches of government would clash and
where a third branch would have to mediate.”
He
refers to Congress, normally an independent and co-equal branch of government,
but by a sad twist of politics, is abnormally under his thumb. He could
instigate Congress to impeach the justices or reduce the court’s budget to the
point of crippling it.
This is
the threat of a spoiled brat and a thug. A statesman will speak of principles
and how they may be upheld. But Aquino doesn’t rise to that level. By keeping
most of Congress in his pocket and by trying to intimidate the justices, he
imperils the system of checks and balances essential to a democracy.
He
claims good faith and that the DAP served the welfare of the people. The claim
rings hollow when you consider that four senators weren’t included in the
program. These happen to be the only ones who didn’t cooperate in his drive to impeach
an earlier nemesis, then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
According
to close observers, many of the DAP items were “priority local projects” funded
on the request of “lawmakers and other officials.” Although these funds were
released directly to implementing agencies, public suspicion is that they were
treated as pork barrel funds, the bulk of which could have found their way into
the pockets of “lawmakers and other officials.”
Hence,
regardless of whether the DAP is constitutional or not, there must be a full
accounting of its funds. Various civil society organizations are now moving
strongly for the impeachment of Aquino. Unfortunately for them, impeachment is
a political game of numbers. In the House where the process must begin, Aquino
supporters have the numbers.
But that
shouldn’t stop those who would launch impeachments proceedings. If that’s the
moral thing to do, it must be attempted even if it fails.
Meanwhile
Aquino wages war against the Supreme Court, and democracy in Asia’s first
republic hangs in the balance.
Jamil
Maidan Flores is a Jakarta-based writer whose interests include philosophy and
foreign policy. He is also an English-language consultant for the Indonesian
government.
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