One big black eye
The
irony of all ironies is that the biggest scam took place during the
time of the President who has been styling and hooting much about the
honesty of his administration. The worse thing is that the President’s
mother was installed to power by the man who agitated the coup d’ etat;
now the President wants this man incarcerated for good. In fact, the
mother power-grabber was even hooted by psychopath clerics to be
canonized as saint. Indeed, it is most ironic because the reason given was that the practice of doling out pork barrel has been going on since its resurrection by Mrs. Cory Aquino. But instead, he abused his power to the hilt by siphoning public funds without regard to the safeguard of an appropriation. If pork barrel was bad enough because it was used to buy the loyalty of those greedy politicians, vis-à-vis deny those that antagonized his policies, that was made worse because this regime had the bad habit of projecting an image of being honest and truthful.
If in the PDAF case, those involved could be accused of malversation if they wholly diverted the funds for their own personal benefit, or for technical malversation if they used the fund in whole or in part for a different government project. The Abad formula called DAP was a case of outright swindling because there were no appropriations that authorized their release and use for whatever purpose they have in mind. In that, one could see how the system of corruption metamorphosed to one of a criminal syndicate hatched by people close to the President and by his cabal of the self-righteous.
To perfect that would require knowledge on how to skirt the intricate legal process, and for the number of times they did it is indicative of their adroitness in the art of swindling. It is for this why it does not make sense for Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda to say that the President acted in good faith which position was readily concurred in by Fr. Joaquin Bernas. Lest it be forgotten, those people are being made to account not for their violation of an ordinance, like jaywalking, but for the serious crime that would freely and massively allow them to use government funds to bribe people.
Before PNoy became President, he served as congressman and senator, and knew that before any public fund could be taken out there has to be an appropriation. It cannot be said that he has not read the Constitution. To allow him that silly alibi would effectively exonerate Secretary Abad. Besides, the issue is not on how they used the money, but on how they were able to secure the release of the money without an appropriation.
In fact, the decision of the Supreme Court to declare PDAF and DAP unconstitutional automatically elevated the status of this pretending-to-be-honest President as the real mastermind. The lady Malacañang has pinned down as the alleged mastermind has completely lost her credibility. Rather, it now appears that Janet Napoles acted as their front. Even if Napoles or any of the senators were not named, the decision nonetheless narrated how the syndicated looting revolved mainly within the Office of the President, the people in the DBM, and the people in COA. No amount of kibitzing opinion earlier expressed could exonerate them.
People would never accept good faith as what they did to pass the bucket of responsibility by putting the blame on Napoles, on Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, and company. On the contrary, it might not even suffice to charge Napoles an accomplice because with or without her, Malacañang could have carried out with impunity its syndicated operations. Malacañang could always secure the services of other quislings like Ruby Tuason who made a bargain for her immunity. It is even most hilarious to say it was a conspiracy hatched between Napoles and those politicians—that would be like accusing those justices as bunch of morons.
If it for this why the so-called “Doctrine of Operative Fact” advanced by ponente, Justice Lucas Bersamin, appears to many as off-tangent. To acquiesce to that doctrine would be dangerous for that would mean the setting aside of the Constitutional mandate all on the flimsy argument that the illegal programs, activities and projects carried out could no longer be undone. But as said, it is not what they accomplished or what they nobly intended to accomplish, but in their collusion to defraud the government, and the role of Napoles who posed as financial broker was only circumstantial.
To be sure, the decision is an indictment of how corrupt this government is; that this stodgy government wants to privatize public funds for PNoy to decide who should be given their manna. Of course, his clappers would say he remains innocent until otherwise impeached and convicted by Congress. The declaration of unconstitutionality merely pertains to the violated provision of the charter. But again that provision would not have been made live had PNoy and his cohorts not committed the crime. Besides, no fool will buy their excuse when it is clear that Malacañang initiated the practice of bribing the senator-judges to secure the impeachment of the country’s chief justice for an offense that is not even impeachable and using evidence that cannot be used on courts of law for having been illegally obtained.
For that bad precedent it is no longer the evidence that counts to determine the guilt of the person to be impeached, but the price that awaits the senator-judges which reason why wily politicians call the impeachment process a non-judicial litigation or political in nature. Invariably, the impeachment trial of Renato Corona, Jr. ended up as the biggest judicial circus in our history because the judges decided on the price that awaits them without any qualms of remorse.
Finally, Butch Abad can be charged any time and a warrant could be served for his arrest. The temporary immunity enjoyed by PNoy applies only to him. It cannot be extended to Abad, or to any of PNoy’s minions. Even then, PNoy can only enjoy his immunity while he remains in office. After that he can be charged and a warrant could be served on him. Remember, there was no impeachable violation that was committed by Mrs. Arroyo that was decided by the Supreme Court, yet she landed in jail because a case was filed against her after her extended term in office expired.
The case against Abad, and those involved including the COA officials for sleeping on their duty is not just a simple case of malversation, but for outright swindling. They conspired to commit an unprecedented crime, and there could be no such thing as good faith, while at the same time pretending to be honest and generous to the public.
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