The 13-0 vote of the Supreme Court striking down certain provisions of the Development Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional is perhaps the biggest political storm to whip the P-Noy administration.
A lump sum, discretionary fund created through savings from various departments, it was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The court said the fund gives extraordinary power to the President. The power of the purse belongs exclusively to Congress.
Legal heavy weights have spoken on the matter.
Among the latest is former chief justice Reynato Puno who said the DAP is in fact worse than the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of legislators.
Puno said the Constitution is unequivocal in laying the rule that “no public money shall be spent except on the basis of appropriation passed by Congress.”
At least the PDAF is in the General Appropriations Act enacted by Congress, unlike the DAP.
President Aquino didn’t make the huge cookie jar in Malacañang. The invention of impounding savings in a depository fund was well used by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and those before her. It’s only now that the anomalous practice was exposed in a decisive way by the High Court.
To distinguish his administration as different from the unpopular administration of Arroyo, one of P-Noy’s main justification for the DAP is that it has been spent in good faith, and eventually, the fund benefited the people.
What makes the incursion by Malacañang into Congress’ power of the purse alarming, aside from making the coffers vulnerable to corruption, is the imbalance of power it creates in the three co-equal branches of government.
As part of its role in a democratic system, the Supreme Court stepped in to prevent the imbalance created by a very powerful executive and a legislature that has been clipped some of its fundamental powers.
By being bull-headed about the issue in a nationally televised speech, where he attacked the Supreme Court decision, P-Noy may have over estimated his social capital.
He should remember that undermining democratic institutions merely weaken the whole government structure.
If history is to be a teacher, P-Noy is not the only one to invoke good faith in accumulating power.
Ferdinand Marcos claimed good faith in declaring Martial Law.
P-Noy may survive the rest of his term, but the way he’s handling the DAP controversy will make the rest of his two years a rough ride. Along the way, genuine reforms he started may wobble, which is a disservice to the public good.
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