A good time to listen to his “bosses”

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

The people cheered when President Aquino called them his “bosses” as he thanked them for treading “the straight and righteous path” and creating change during his second State-of-the-Nation address on July 25, 2011. Now, more than two years later, his sincerity in calling the people his “bosses” and in promising to tread the “daang matuwid” with them is in question.

The President has obviously chosen to ignore the voice of his “bosses” who have repeatedly called for the abolition of the pork barrel system in protest marches, through the internet and through the media. His “bosses” made clear their stand against the abuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the congressional pork barrel, and the illegal use of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), one of several presidential lump sum pork funds, when they brought Aquino’s approval ratings down by at least 15 percentage points in separate surveys by Social Weather Station and reportedly a survey commissioned by Malacanang.

According to the SWS survey, conducted from September 20 to 23, Aquino’s approval rating dropped to +49 percent from a high +64 percent in June. This was one of the steepest drops suffered by Aquino since he took office on July 1, 2010.

Not ready to believe the SWS survey because his approval and trust ratings barely changed in a similar survey by Pulse Asia, Malacanang, according to the Philippine Star, commissioned a survey that showed an even worse drop – a net approval rating of only +35 percent, 44-percent less than Pulse Asia’s figures and 14-percent lower than those of SWS.

It was even worse for both the Senate and House of Representatives, whose approval ratings dropped by at least 14 percentage points — +39 percent for the Senate and +32 for the House. The worst drop was on the ratings of Senate President Franklin Drilon, the biggest supporter of pork barrel in Congress whose approval rating dropped to 50 percent from 62 percent in June and a trust rating of only 46 percent.

The surveys reflected the anger of the people over the misuse of pork barrel and DAP funds as the surveys were conducted at the peak of the pork barrel controversy in late September and early October.

But obviously, the surveys didn’t matter to Aquino and his congressional cohorts. The senators later voted to realign their PDAF funds into Aquino’s calamity fund, while the congressmen passed in less than one hour a General Appropriations Bill that included their pork barrel as line items for projects of their choice.

Aquino, on the other hand, continued to defend his illegal use of the DAP funds, which were culled from unspent or un-appropriated funds of the various government agencies in 2012. He said he smelled a conspiracy among suspects in the plunder charges and some elements of media, and insisted that the DAP funds should be treated as stimulus to economic growth. How could the billions stimulate the economy when most of the funds went to the pockets of the lawmakers and unscrupulous businessmen like Janet Lim Napoles?

The sentiment of the people did not seem to matter to Aquino, who said in 2011 that he would vow to the wishes of his “bosses.” His arrogance in the pork barrel controversy has betrayed his insincerity and dishonesty in dealing with the people’s trust and money.

Even former Sen. Panfilo Lacson, one of his closest friends and allies, distanced himself from Aquino’s stance on PDAF and DAP when he assailed in a speech before the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) the President’s “constitutionally infirm act” of augmenting” non-existing” items in the budget law and realigning the savings of the executive branch to the legislative, referring to the disbursement by Aquino of P50 million to P100 million to senators and P10 million to P15 million to congressmen in DAP funds shortly after the impeachment and conviction of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012.

Lacson, who never availed of his pork barrel allotment when he was a senator and who has consistently opposed pork barrel, said the country was now saddled with a P5.684-trillion debt that enabled the government to accumulate “savings” of P669 billion that was being used to impose a “fiscal dictatorship” to control all branches of government and to perpetuate greed and corruption.

Lacson said the national budget had more than doubled under Aquino just in his first year.

“In 2002, the first national budget under former President [Gloria] Arroyo was P782.9 billion. Nine years later, in 2011, the first national budget under President Aquino had more than doubled to P1.645 trillion,” Lacson said.

“An ordinary citizen’s valid question is — Why do we keep on borrowing when we keep on saving? I will venture a guess for an answer: Para may mapaglaruang pondo ang mga nasa gobyerno, (So that those in the government will have funds to play with),” Lacson said.

The business community had criticized Aquino for under-spending in the first two years of his administration, resulting in huge budget surpluses and billions of unspent appropriations that were eventually used to control Congress in the matter of Corona’s impeachment and the approval of the controversial Reproduction Health Law.

And yet, despite these savings, Lacson correctly pointed out, the Aquino administration increased its foreign borrowings as it increased the national budget year after year. Now, every single Filipino owes almost P62,000 each mostly to foreigners.

Aquino has also chosen to ignore the appeal of both the Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO) and the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAA) for Aquino to return to the National Treasury the Malampaya Fund and other government funds spent at his discretion so their use could be monitored.

The PMA alumni, in a statement, entitled “A Call for Good Governance,” urged Congress and the President to totally abolish the PADF or pork barrel funds in whatever form and for Aquino to discontinue disbursement of the DAP funds. They also demanded that all revenues of the government, such as the Malampaya Fund, Pagcor and PCSO funds, be deposited to the National Treasury and be spent only in accordance with the General Appropriations Act.

The retired generals also asked all those implicated in the pork barrel scandal to take a leave of absence or to resign, and asked the Judiciary to speed up the prosecution of these cases. Finally, they called on all public officials, including members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces to “set the correct example in good governance, perform their duties as protectors of the people and the State (underlining mine), and not use their office to amass wealth illegally.”

Then President Joseph Estrada made the mistake of ignoring a similar plea by the retired generals in 2000 at the height of his impeachment trials and paid dearly for it, forced out of office by an obvious military coup that was made to appear as EDSA People Power in January 2001.

Aquino has to reconsider his arrogant position on the pork barrel issue. He promised to listen to his “bosses” — the people, not the military — and this may be a good time to fulfill at least one of his many promises.