Noynoy’s false regard on his integrity and capability seems to be the root of the double standard which he applies on every issue that faces him, including that on the pork barrel scandal, where foes are considered guilty until proven innocent while allies are given the presumption of innocence consistent with the dictum on local criminal prosecution. The stock argument on actions of his administration which appear not to deviate from the “crooked” ways of the past dispensation is that his intentions are good and thus such make his moves correct. During a media briefing, Noynoy was asked to reconcile his past convictions with his current actions as president. Cited were two of the so few bills he had authored in the chamber, one of which was against the presidential impounding of funds while the other was against the unlimited reappointments of government officials bypassed by the Commission on Appointments (CA). These bills of his were placed in relation to Noynoy’s rabid defense of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the numerous reappointments of Social Works Secretary Corazon Soliman, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, and Agrarian Reform Secretary Ramon Paje, among other Cabinet officials. Despite the glaring contradictions Noynoy claimed that he has been consistent all along in what he believes. Clearly, he is caught at his own lies, as what be had believed to be wrong as stated in his bills, he does exactly that which he was against when he was not president. He rattled off his usual argument utilizing the already defenseless detained former President Gloria Arroyo as body shield. Noynoy said during Arroyo’s stint, she was in charge of 10 annual budgets none of which was approved on time or before the budget year started. He claimed that this was being done deliberately by the former administration for a reenacted budget to overlap with the approved budget and thus allow for the huge discretionary funds of the president. The DAP is different because it came from a budget that was approved on time, he claimed. Yet there was no such thing as DAP in the budget, not is he allowed to allocate funds that have not been allocated by Congress. Besides, the DAP funds are forced savings that are also discretionary funds of the president and has the same character as impounded funds during the previous administration. Noynoy claimed that the savings that went to DAP was the result of consultations with agencies which determine which committed project cannot be implemented compared to what he claimed as forced savings under the term of his political nemesis. The DAP, he said, tried to correct to inefficiencies of certain departments by taking away the funds for projects they can’t implement which are converted into savings and reallocated to fast-disbursing projects to improve government service. One of the so-called fast-disbursing projects is the railroaded conviction of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona in the Senate impeachment court where the DAP was used to provide P50 million ro P100 billion in extra pork barrel for each of the senator judges who gave a guilty verdict. His rationale for the infinite reappointments of bypassed Cabinet officials was that he has continued confidence on those whom the bicameral body had not given its nod over the years. He even suggested that the CA members have self-serving reasons in bypassing his trusted Cabinet men and challenged that records be compared with the Cabinet men of the former regime, even citing the name of former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who was also repeatedly bypassed, and compare his performance with that of De Lima. In effect, Noynoy’s argument was that the continued reappointment of the Cabinet secretaries is good under him because his confidence in them counts, with him claiming that he is incorruptible or something to that effect while Gloria has been doing that based on whims. His defense of Budget Secretary Butch Abad, however, is a classic act of cover up despite pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles pointing at Abad as her mentor in setting up her nefarious syndicate. All of us under our laws have a presumption of innocence, it doesn’t mean that if Napoles mentions my name tomorrow, I need to be replaced, he said. Well with Noynoy being linked to the scam, coming from him, sounded more like a premonition. Published in Editorial
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 01:48:34 +0000
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