By Alejandro Del Rosario
The student did learn something from the teacher.
Bristling with arrogance and peeved at being called “pork barrel king,” President B.S. Aquino fumed and challenged critics: ” Go ahead, impeach me !”
Aquino is confident he controls Congress where he bought almost everyone with pork barrel largesse, especially the House, where any impeachment process starts. He points to former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s use of the Priority Development Assistance Fund to block three impeachment attempts to unseat her.
So, Aquino was a good student after all and learned a thing or two from his predecessor and former economics professor. But he needs to go back to school and enroll in a law course at Ateneo , his alma mater, where he could learn the finer points of the law from Dean Fr. Joaquin Bernas.
Obviously, Aquino is not getting good legal advice from Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Spokesman Edwin “Liecierda, ”and Deputy Spokesperson Abigail Valte—who are all lawyers.
Bernas, a member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission during Cory Aquino’s presidency, expressed the opinion PNoy’s disbursement of funds under the little- known Disbursement Acceleration Program is unconstitutional and illegal.
Another law dean, Fr. Ranhilio Aquino of San Beda, shares the legal opinion of Fr. Bernas that the DAP concocted by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to ”ramp up public spending to spur the economy” but used as added pork to lawmakers has no legal basis.
Both legal luminaries stopped short of calling for the impeachment of Aquino
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, a known constitutionalist, and former Senator Joker Arroyo , also said the release of “pork” funds to the senators through DAP was patently illegal without congressional approval .
Not too many know that Aquino, when he was senator, filed a bill called Budget Impoundment Act meant to hold on to government fund savings to prevent its realignment for other expenditures other than its original purpose.
Senator Santiago said she would refile Aquino’s bill to stop the conversion of government savings and its misuse as pork barrel allocations. She said Abad should resign but doubts an impeachment case against the President will prosper, considering more than half of the congressmen are recipients of pork barrel and complicit in its misuse.
Is that why PNoy insists on maintaining the pork barrel under another name? Like throwing pearls for swine, B.S Aquino knows the only way he can keep congressmen loyal is to make sure their trough is filled with swill.
Former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno also weighed in to denounce Abad’s illegal diversion of funds to reward the senators who voted to convict impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona last year.
Diokno, Law Deans Aquino and Bernas, Senator Santiago and retired Senator Arroyo are one in saying the President, abetted by Abad, committed an impeachable act under the Constitution.
The leftist-militant peasant group, Kilusang Magbubukid, on Wednesday filed plunder raps against President Aquino, Budget Secretary Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and detained businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles who is widely seen as the mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Organizers of yesterday’s Million People March Part 2 in the Ayala central business district in Makati gave new meaning to DAP as—Drilon, Abad and PNoy—as the triad of the pork barrel slush fund.
” PDAF+ DAP = Holdap” said a placard at the Ayala protest rally, voicing the people’s outrage at being repeat robbery victims of crooked politicians. Other placards took it out on the budget secretary whose nickname is “Butch.”
“A bad man”, “Botcha”, (as in double dead and tainted pork meat), and “Butcher” were some of the protest signs against Abad carried by the early birds who started gathering at Ayala avenue as early as 12 noon.
It’s a steep descent from when Abad was a respected Batanes congressman and a member of the opposition against the Arroyo administration.
Malacañang went from defensive to attack mode as it ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to file plunder charges against former President Arroyo, her Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman in connection with the diversion of P900 million from the Malampaya oil and gas fields meant for the relief of typhoon victims. Also accused were 20 others, including Napoles whose nefarious money-making ways reached all the way back to the Arroyo years and continued on to the Aquino administration.
In press conferences called by the Palace on Thursday, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Press Secretary Ramon Carandang went to great extent justifying DAP and the P50-million given to each senator who had voted to convict the chief magistrate.
The two Malacañang mouthpieces claimed the additional P50 million released to the senators was for their infrastructure projects and cannot be considered a bribe because it was given months later after the Corona impeachment trial last year.
Senator Santiago who’s more steeped in the law thinks otherwise.
“There is no time frame as to what is considered a bribe. It can be committed before, during or after a desired act performed by the intended recipient,” said Santiago to squelch the Palace line on DAP and the 50 million reasons for the senators’ bonanza.
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