Gran padrino de los ladrones

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

If there is one trait that has remained the bedrock of colonial mentality long after Spain soldLas Islas Filipinas to Uncle Sam for $20 million over a century ago, it is the time-tested “padrino system” that we inherited from the Spanish colonizers. It is ingrained in the Filipino psyche affecting his way of life including the way he deals with others.

Indeed, in today’s Filipino body politic, business and politics are so intertwined in our lives that you cannot do business without politics and vice versa. We conclude a business transaction if it is good politics and we seal a political alliance if it is good business.

As someone once said, “In America the people get rich to enter politics; in the Philippines people enter politics to get rich.” And the way – only way! — to getting rich in office is through corruption.

It is not surprising then that corruption seems to be the standard of governance. Government officials are expected – nay, required! – to adhere to an unwritten “code of conduct.” And for those who don’t adhere to this code, the punishment could be as severe as putting to an end their political future and a closure to profitable corrupt practices.

The most profitable source of ill-gotten wealth among the elected members of Congress is the pork barrel system. In the guise of helping their poor constituents and improving the infrastructure of their congressional districts, pork barrel allocations — or what is known officially as Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) – are released to projects identified and endorsed by the lawmakers receiving the pork barrel allocations.

The beauty of PDAF is that it was designed to release pork barrel funds directly to the vendor or provider of goods through certified and legitimately operating non-government organizations (NGOs) who serve as the implementing agencies. These NGOs are non-profit entities. They are responsible for ensuring that the pork barrel funds are used according to plan. The endorsing lawmakers are not supposed to receive any compensation for their endorsement. In essence, pork barrel funds are exclusively for the benefit of the people.

Pork barrel scam

Better days: Janet Lim-Napoles and President Aquino

But as it turns out, large chunks of the pork barrel funds disbursed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) under the Office of the President did not go where they were intended to but went to the pockets of the endorsing lawmakers through a scam operated by Janet Lim-Napoles. This netted her P10 billion in the past 10 years. But the lion’s share went to the lawmakers who were alleged to have received kickbacks amounting from 50% to 70% of the funds diverted from the PDAF.

Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

However, this could just be the tip of the iceberg. Ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) has produced evidence of massive corruption involving a large number of lawmakers. The first batch of lawmakers charged with plunder and malversation of public funds were Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. But more charges will be filed against other lawmakers and government officials. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced that the DOJ is working on the second and third batches of lawmakers to be brought to court.

Patronage politics

Late President Cory Aquino and son President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III

Never in the history of the Philippines had these many lawmakers and government officials involved in raiding the PDAF since it was created under another name during the time of the late president Cory Aquino, President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III’s mother.

In 1989 Cory created the Mindanao Development Fund (MDF) and the Visayas Development Fund (VDF), with an appropriation of P480 million and P240 million, respectively. In 1990, the MDF and VDF were combined and expanded nationwide as the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) with an appropriation of P2.3 billion. In 2000, the CDF was renamed “PDAF.”

Since then, the PDAF has taken a quantum leap under P-Noy’s administration. DBM records show that in 2010, Gloria’s last budget year, PDAF was P6.9 billion. The following year, with P-Noy having full control of the budget, he could have pared down the PDAF allocations. But instead, PDAF allocations increased substantially. In 2011, PDAF more than tripled from 2010’s P6.9 billion to P22.3 billion! In 2012, it was increased to P24.89 billion. It was for the same amount in 2013. But in 2014, PDAF increased to a record P27 billion; however, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping further releases of PDAF allocations and the President’s Social Fund (PSF). Also covered in the TRO are releases from the Malampaya Fund. The TRO was in response to three citizens’ petitions that asked the court to declare as unconstitutional the lump sum allocations under the PDAF and the PSF, and the misuse of the Malampaya Fund.

“Pork Barrel King”

DBM Secretary Florencio Abad and President Aquino

The PDAF is peanuts compared to the presidential discretionary fund, which has grown to P1.3 trillion in 2014. Many constitutionalists claim that this humongous fund is in all appearances a pork barrel. However, amidst a growing public outcry against the presidential pork barrel, P-Noy – dubbed “Pork Barrel King” — has bullheadedly insisted that it is not pork barrel.

But nothing is more offensive than P-Noy’s newly crafted Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), a new pork barrel program that was created without congressional authority. DAP was designed to use “savings” from budgeted items, which was legal only if the savings were realized from under-spent budgeted programs or projects at the end of a fiscal year. Legal experts opined that it becomes constitutionally illegal when “savings” result from arbitrarily ending or under-spending a program or project before the fiscal year ended. It’s interesting to note that DAP is created, controlled, and disbursed exclusively by the President. And the kicker is: it’s unaudited!

Indeed, P-Noy has pulled off a coup d’etat against Congress, which effectively grabbed the “power of the purse” from the lawmakers thus making P-Noy a “fiscal dictator” with absolute authority over a large amount of the people’s money.

Interestingly, the DAP in 2012 accumulated about P700 billion for P-Noy to use any which way he wants. Now that is absolute power, which reminds us of Lord Acton’s famous mantra that he expressed in 1887: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“The buck stops here”

Finger-pointing (Credit: Bulatlat)

In the final analysis, one of the causes of the pork barrel scandal was P-Noy’s DAP, which is given to lawmakers at the sole discretion of P-Noy and without the requisite checks and balances to prevent corruption at the highest levels of government. By not putting them in place, P-Noy must be held responsible for the corruption in his administration.

The late U.S. President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that says, “The buck stops here.” This saying was derived from the expression “pass the buck.” It means passing responsibility on to someone else when something goes wrong, which is what P-Noy does all the time.

Recently, P-Noy addressed the people on national television and declared: “I am not a thief!” I believe him. He said that the thieves are the lawmakers who stole from their pork barrel allocations. Yes, these are the thieves who benefitted from P-Noy’s generosity. That makes P-Noy the godfather of thieves, the “Gran padrino de los ladrones.”

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)