It’s President Noynoy’s privilege whether to revoke the resignation of his Budget Sec. Florencio Abad. Thinking Filipinos grant him that.
But they cannot let P-Noy decree on other facets of his presidential pork barrel, Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
One is his insistence on having done no wrong in concocting the DAP with Abad. Only the Supreme Court can declare so. And it has ruled, 14-0, that the DAP is unconstitutional in three ways. Meaning, P-Noy and Abad have erred. Months ago the SC also illegalized the congressional “pork.” The 24 senators and 292 congressmen have conceded, if grudgingly.
Limp too is P-Noy’s resaying that the DAP is clean and did the people good in 2011-2013. Only an independent audit, not press releases, can show that. Even if P-Noy is mulling to seek SC reconsideration, DAP works should have been examined since end-2011, -2012, and -2013. Normally it should be by the Commission on Audit. But the independent body has been soiled by its receipt of P150 million in DAP. That “cross-border” grant from Malacañang is precisely one of the reasons the SC voided it.
Abad has not even admitted how much DAP he and P-Noy had doled out. Is it P142.23 billion as they first said after a senator exposed it, or P149.2 billion as they told the SC, or P157.4 billion as posted in the DBM website, or the P136.8 billion mentioned in Abad’s recent press statement? The fudging of figures makes an audit more pressing. The billion-peso variants, and undetailed references to 116 projects, weaken P-Noy’s claim of good faith.
Heightening the suspicions of hanky-panky is the presidential spokesman’s vouching for only 91 percent of the DAP. He would not do the same of the nine percent, P13 billion, that Malacañang had given Congress (in another “cross-border” breach). This squid tactic of passing blame on lawmakers only further blackens the DAP. More so since, the recipient lawmakers were untrustworthy to begin with. The ledger of the congressional “pork” scam whistleblower lists five senators to have pocketed P425 million of the DAP. They allegedly pulled it off the way they did with their congressional slabs in 2007-2009 – through bogus projects and NGOs of fixer Janet Lim Napoles. How could the DAP have been clean and done the people good if given to at least five crooks?
Thinking Filipinos do not wish P-Noy to decide one other facet of the DAP. That is, where to detain Napoles while on trial for no-bail plunder of the related congressional “pork.” The issue has been festering for months, since Napoles surrendered to Malacañang for a different heinous offense: illegal detention of her whistleblowing nephew. P-Noy had granted her a bungalow inside a police camp in a Manila suburb. The special quarters and costly convoys to hearings – not given to others similarly indicted, like one movie starlet – point up political favoritism. What makes indictee Napoles so important to P-Noy’s DAP?
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After hunting down colorum public buses and jeepneys, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has moved to the next target. It is now disenfranchising school variants older than 15 years. Not only school bus-jeepney operators, but also parents and vehicle rebuilders are resisting.
Foremost at issue is cost. To switch to the brand-new units that the LTFRB requires would drive undercapitalized operators out of business. Remnants would be forced to triple service charges. Though supporting the LTFRB’s aim of ride safety and reliability, budget-conscious parents are seeking a middle ground.
The LTFRB counters that it had given operators ample grace period to abide. Though the phase-out of over-15s became a rule in 2004, it is only now being enforced. Not so fast, vehicle rebuilders interject. The Dept. of Trade and Industry had encouraged them two years ahead of that to go into bus-jeepney-truck engine and body works. Now that they’ve done so, another agency is taking away a good chunk of their business.
Consultations clearly are needed to harmonize the missteps. The LTFRB’s sister agency, Land Transportation Office, sets no age limit for roadworthiness. Instead it requires public utility and for-hire vehicles to pass yearly certifications by its motor vehicle inspection centers. The tests include parts replacements, emission-compliant, and drivers’ drug use. Indeed, road safety is as much the responsibility of police and public works departments.
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Calling all members of the EKIT (Samahan ng Kabataang Pilipino):
Join the forthcoming 46th anniversary activities, with the theme “Palawakin ang Kapatiran, isulong ang mga adhikain.” The national convention and homecoming fellowship are to be held on Aug. 30, 2014, in Manila. Organizers: U.P.-Manila resident and alumni chapters. For details, contact Brods Mike Mabutol, (+63908) 8957995, Carlo Logro, (+63917) 8363843, 46th committee chairman Danny Co (+63917) 3591957, or Bing Villarta (+63949) 7752011 and (+63915) 8716762.
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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).
Gotcha archives https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA
E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com
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