Politics, not SC, is to blame

ON DISTANT SHORE

By Val G. Abelgas

With the Aquino administration, when something goes wrong there is always somebody or something to blame. After all, President Aquino is still blaming former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for everything that ails the country more than four years after he took over the reins of the country.

For example, when the government failed to fulfill its promise and its boast that the Philippines would not only gain self-sufficiency in rice but would actually be an exporter by the middle of his term, the administration blamed the typhoons and the rice smugglers, incognizant of the fact that it should have considered typhoons as a factor in its agricultural plan and that it should have stopped the smugglers in the first place.

When Aquino was asked about the deteriorating human rights problem in the country, Aquino told foreign media it was just “leftist propaganda,” echoing the same line that the late strongman President Ferdinand Marcos often said.

Whenever his performance ratings take a beating, Aquino blames the media for its negative reporting and his critics for their “negativism.”

So it was not really surprising that when the economic growth slowed down by a big 1.7% in the third quarter, from 7.0% in the same period last year, the administration would not take the fall and blame somebody else. Budget Secretary Butch Abad, Aquino’s most trusted adviser and architect of the now illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), blamed the Supreme Court’s adverse ruling on DAP for the slowdown in government spending, which was one of the factors cited by Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan for the reduced growth.

“It must be mentioned that uncertainties in the wake of the high court’s decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program played a crucial role in this development, as the ruling may have sent a chilling effect across the bureaucracy’s expenditure practices,” Abad said. That’s what Aquino has been telling the people days after the unanimous SC decision.

The third quarter growth was the slowest pace since 2011 and was well below the consensus forecast of 6.4% for the period made by 24 economists polled by Bloomberg, and was 1.1% slower than the 6.4% registered in the previous quarter.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno immediately rejected Abad’s insinuation that the slower growth in the third quarter could be partly attributed to the new “spending protocols” arising from the declaration that the DAP is unconstitutional. She said the Supreme Court’s decision on DAP had nothing to do with the GDP growth rate.
“I see it as a theory and it will remain as that,” Sereno said.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate called Abad’s statement “criminally anomalous” and said it exposed as “pure lies” the administration’s claim before the Supreme Court in January that the program was discontinued because it had already served its purpose of accelerating public spending.

“The real causes of the economy’s slowdown are its lopsided economic policies and its highly anomalous and unconstitutional acts of sabotaging the Congress’ power of the purse,” he said.

The government cannot blame the SC decision because most of the public works projects have already been funded by Congress but has either not been bid out or has not been fully implemented. Economists point out that, for example, billions of pesos are available for the rehabilitation of areas severely affected by super typhoon Yolanda but the government has dilly dallied in even identifying the projects.

The real problem is that instead of focusing on the economy and other important matters, the administration has been busy planning for the 2016 presidential elections. Even the P2.6-trillion national budget is believed to have been loaded with items meant to give administration allies an edge in the coming campaign.

For example, former National Treasurer Leonor Briones, the lead convenor of the Social Watch Philippines, said the administration has sought a P23-billion supplemental budget for the remaining days of 2014, but has not detailed the proposed amounts for the expenditure items.

“The Senate has just approved the 2015 budget yet, it is interesting to note, it is already near the end of the year and a supplemental budget for 2014 is still being proposed by DBM. Can it use up the supplemental budget in one month?” asked Briones. She described the supplemental budget as “vague, undetailed and therefore vulnerable.”

“There is also an impression that P14B of the P23.4-billion supplemental budget may refer to Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) projects which were not yet implemented or were partially implemented due to the previous Supreme court decisions, where PDAF and DAP were declared unconstitutional,” she stated.

Apparently, the pork barrel and DAP funds that were committed to the senators and congressmen have to be given out, which could account for the P14 billion for projects that “were not yet implemented or were partially implemented.”

It is becoming obvious that the Aquino administration is not ready to give up the pork barrel despite the unanimous decisions by the high tribunal declaring both the PDAF and the DAP unconstitutional.

Briones also said Congress has basically granted Aquino the power to move funds around in the same way he did with the DAP after the Senate retained the Palace-initiated redefinition of the term “savings” in the 2015 national budget. She said this redefinition could perpetuate the pork barrel system and other programs similar to DAP.

“The issue of when to declare savings is an important question we should be asking. With the budget approved by both houses of Congress, the budget will still be primarily under the control of the Executive. If the Executive chooses to, it can declare savings from released appropriations and use it to fund DAP-like projects,” Briones said.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago agreed with Briones, saying that a redefinition of savings and the retention of pork barrel allocation are “two dangerous minefields” that have put into question the constitutionality of the proposed budget for next year.

Santiago asked the Senate, apparently to no avail, to revert to the old definition of savings and to stick to Section 91 of the general provisions requiring the Department of Budget and Management to submit a report on compliance with reportorial requirements on lump sums.

She said the 2015 budget is the kind of budget that administration candidates can benefit from come election time. “It gives too much money where it should not be placed. It does not give enough to where it is needed,” Santiago said. “It’s a very lopsided budget.”

Aquino is obviously hell bent on making sure his candidates would have an edge in the 2016 elections that’s why he, Abad and his minions in both the House and the Senate are doing everything to subvert the SC decision and retain the “power of the purse.”

Too much politics and its consequent corruption, not the Supreme Court, are to blame for the economic growth deceleration and the country’s other nagging problems. They have been the bane of the country’s development for as long as I can remember.

(valabelgas@aol.com)