What the complainants who filed for President Benigno Aquino III’s impeachment may not have considered is that the Supreme Court has yet to respond to Malacañang’s motion for reconsideration on the declaration of portions of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional.
The court may or may not reverse itself depending on the arguments of the Aquino administration. What is important is that the motion itself will be an avenue for Malacañang to clarify further why it believes it acted in good faith in rechanneling extra money from various departments to projects that stimulate the economy.
This is why many y quarters believe the impeachment complaint is premature, or even unnecessary. Another reason is that the High Court itself urged the administration to prove its good faith in the proper forum.
So far, the Office of the President has presented a list of projects, including flood control that were funded under DAP. Secretary Rogelio Singson has come out saying that these projects were identified by members of the House of Representatives.
If that were the case, then the Court may need to take a second look at whether the executive department has indeed wrested from Congress its power of the purse.
The Palace needs to account for the ill effects of its exercise of good faith in a transparent way. It has to prove this through full transparency, with the way the DAP funds were spent, that an impeachment complaint would be a wasteful political exercise.
Failing this, the President and his allies will end up in the awkward position of resorting to the basest form of politics, counting noses to ensure that the impeachment complaint would not prosper.
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) said the well-intended DAP was ill-implemented.
“For sure, a number of DAP projects have been completed or are now in the final stages of completion. These reportedly include about 60 percent of the projects to dredge, restore, or construct creeks, seawalls, dikes, waterways, and slope protection in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and the Laguna Lake, that altogether drew about P5 billion in DAP funds.
“Yet some Cabinet officials have questioned the absorptive capacity or actual capability of DAP recipient agencies to roll out projects quickly and well. After all, DAP has meant not just more money to spend, but also more projects to implement,” the PCIJ stated.
The Palace is in a dilemma, but the choices are clear.
Be fully transparent on DAP and let the heads of those responsible for unconstitutional acts roll.
Or let the President face the impeachment complaint without unethical maneuvers from his allies so that he can prove himself as straight as the path he wishes the nation to take.
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