Power corrupts P-Noy

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

After repeatedly denying it in the past, President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino had let the cat out of the bag: He wants a second term! And he wants it for a strange reason: To curtail the power of the Supreme Court. Whoa! What happened?

Going back to Day One of the Aquino presidency, it reminds us of the promise of hope and pagbabago(change) that P-Noy made to the people whom he called “boss.” He promised in his inaugural speech that there would be no more “wang-wang” and the bosses roared in approval.

But what was really the centerpiece of the mandate his bosses gave him on Election Day was predicated on his campaign promise of“Walang korap, walang mahirap” (No corruption, no poverty). Yes, there will be no more corruption, no more poverty! That pumped the people up. Finally, here is a man who would deliver the poor from their hellish lives. Hope…Pagbabago… No more pagpag for food. How sweet.

For the next four years, the poor experienced the taste of sweetness. But it was not the sweetness of progress. It was artificial sweetener to keep them contented from day to day. And for as long as they get a taste of “sweetness” they’d be out of harm’s way. Indeed, feeding the poor has always been the ultimate act to pacify the malcontents. Feed them and everything would just be sweet and sassy.

The “sweetener” that P-Noy gives to the poor is called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, a form of conditional cash transfer (CCT). Its goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by implementing health and education programs for households that have children ages 0-14. It operates in 79 provinces covering 1,484 municipalities and 143 cities. Currently, the program has more than four million registered households.

Plunder

Janet Lim Napoles in police custody

But no sooner had the program been implemented than allegations of “ghost” beneficiaries were made triggering demands for investigation. However, the Aquino administration had repeatedly denied the requests.

But nothing is more serious than the plunder of pork barrel funds, which were intended for projects that would have benefitted the people – particularly the poorest of the poor and the hungry or “food-poor.” Instead they were diverted to bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) controlled by Janet Lim Napoles – the “Pork Barrel Queen” – who, with the connivance of elected officials, had siphoned off at least P10 billion from Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations to lawmakers. In exchange for the lawmakers’ “cooperation,” Napoles gave them kickbacks anywhere between 40% and 70% of the scammed funds. Napoles pocketed the rest.

Butch Abad confers with P-Noy

Prominently involved in the pork barrel scam was Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad who issued the Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs) approved and signed by the President authorizing the National Treasury to release the funds from PDAF.

In 2011, P-Noy set up the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) – a brainchild of Abad — drawing funds from purported “savings” in budget items and funneling them into a huge “piggy bank.” Since its inception, more than P150 billion were transferred to DAP. But what was anomalous was that DAP funds were spent without congressional authorization.

Double whammy

Supreme Court

Then the unthinkable happened! On November 19, 2013, the Supreme Court by a unanimous vote of 14-0, declared the PDAF unconstitutional. Seven months later, on July 1, 2014, it ruled that three parts of DAP are unconstitutional.

It was a stunning setback for P-Noy. He accepted the ruling on PDAF but he stood his ground on DAP insisting that it was legal. This set the tone for his “war” against the Supreme Court, which he treated with contempt. He swiped at the Judiciary for “meddling” too much into the affairs of the other two co-equals, the Executive and the Legislative branches.

In my article, “Is DAP worth fighting for?” I wrote: “P-Noy’s tirade against the Supreme Court is like a little boy throwing a tantrum, making unreasonable and foolish demands. He knows better that the Supreme Court’s ruling, once it became executory, is final and there is no appeal. Perhaps his legal staff should give him advice on the legality – and futility – of what he’s doing.

“What he should have done was do a mea culpa routine just like when then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appeared on TV and said she was sorry for the ‘Hello Garci’ scandal. She did it without admitting guilt. It was brilliant! Indeed, there is nothing more profound than admitting a mistake. It’s the best defense.”

Charter change

Then the unexpected happened! Last August 14, a Manila newspaper reported: “President Aquino is now amenable to amending the Constitution and extending his term apparently to check the power of the Supreme Court, a coequal of the executive branch. The President said the judiciary appeared to be using its power to check the executive and legislative branches without restraint. ‘When I took this office, I recall that it was only for one term of six years,’ he said. ‘Now, after having said that, of course, I have to listen to my bosses [the people].’ ”

But the following day, P-Noy backed off after a tsunami of opposition flooded the airwaves, the broadsheets, and the social media. Ninety percent of those who commented in the social media were against a second term for P-Noy. Many commented that his mother, the late President Cory Aquino, had opposed former presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s attempts to amend the Constitution allowing them to run for a second term, which begs the question: Would Cory have opposed her son’s attempt to stay in power longer than what the 1987 Constitution allows him?

Judicial independence

But regardless of whether P-Noy would extend his term or not, it has become apparent that his hubris was born out of the power that he amassed during the four years of his presidency. Now that he has full control of both houses of Congress and had placed generals loyal to him in key positions in the military, only the Judiciary remains independent, which had demonstrated in the PDAF and DAP unanimous rulings that “judicial independence” still reigns supreme.

Indeed, the Supreme Court’s judicial oversight and review – which P-Noy objects to — and the checks and balances inherent in our trilateral form of government, guarantees that our country shall be governed by the rule of law and not by the rule of man. I must also add that for as long as we have an independent Judiciary, nobody – not one man or group — should ever have absolute power. And as Lord Acton had once said: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is a mantra that should always remind our leaders that corruption thrives on power.

Has power corrupted P-Noy?

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)