Since I published this column last week, my position on this issue has evolved. Originally, I thought it would make sense to redefine savings so long as the constitutional limitations are respected and the tests for proper delegation of legislative power were complied with. But now I have changed my mind not for legal but policy reasons. It seems obvious that if such a redefinition was done, through a joint resolution or in the GAA, there will be immediately a petition to declare such congressional acts unconstitutional. That case will have to be heard and argued and it will probably take the Supreme Court a year from the filing of the case to decide. This means that a decision is likely to come between January -March 2016, right smack into the election season. Why would President Aquino, Secretary Abad, and others want that kind of uncertainty with the budget for the next year and a half? Why should the country have to go through with what we went through with DAP all over again? So buy advice, hard nosed and practical, to the administration - forget about it, just comply with the Supreme Court decision and live with the rules that has now been clarified.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 01:33:34 +0000
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