Dumb and ...

“SO WHAT if the pork is gone but the pigs remain?”

So asked Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz in his blog entry titled “On Pork and Pigs.”

“The question is neither intended as a mere joke or simply meant to have fun. It is, in fact, equivalent to a statement that more than only doing away with the object of thievery, what is really needed is to get rid of the thieves. To say it another way, it is not enough merely to do away with the pork. It is necessary to get rid of the pigs and this means all the pigs from the top to the bottom of the government,” the eminent prelate wrote.

“How? Let those who love their country, who care for their fellowmen, who want a better future for their children decide. It is their concern. It is their option. It is their move.”

A call to action there. Meriting immediate response from the pigsties that are Congress and the Senate.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte: “Masyado naman ’yan (That’s a bit too much). But we won’t resort to name-calling.”

Senate President Franklin Drilon: “I don’t understand it.”

Yeah, pig’s ears are only good for sisig.  

…Dumber

“THE LEGALITY of such a process is clearly stated in Executive Order 292, or the Administrative Code of 1987, amongst other laws.”

So obstinately defended President BS Aquino III the Disbursement Acceleration Program. 

“It is difficult to fathom how one could equate this program with PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund). The only thing one could remotely relate to PDAF were those projects undertaken through consultation with our legislators.”

BS Aquino denigrated the criticisms against DAP as “background noise” intended to “drown” the issue on the misuse and abuse of the PDAF.

Said he before members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippine: “Since I am in a room full of journalists, perhaps I can leave it to you to connect the dots: All of these attacks came after plunder cases, among others, that were filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against a few well-known politicians.”

As it may have been too taxing to his mind, BS Aquino cavalierly dismissed sound  arguments on the illegality of his DAP.

Thus, former Sen. Joker Arroyo: “This DAP is a creation of the Department of Budget and Management and being a creation only of the department, that is illegal and disbursements of DAP would also be illegal. [The DBM] has no business issuing or forming this DAP because they cannot do that without a supporting law.”

Furthered he: “The DAP involves money so to disburse that they must have the authority (to do so). Nowhere in any of our laws and any of our general appropriations act does it appear that DAP was created at all with the sanction and support of Congress.”

Thus, former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno: "DAP is illegal. You can't use savings to augment a non-existing item in the budget…Ito bastusan eh... Ang ginawa ng executive is that they sliced and diced the budget and repackaged it and came out with a new budget which is P72-billion worth."

Elaborated he: “The Constitution is very clear that no law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriation. They allow augmentation of existing budget items in the budget. The President, Senate President and Speaker can augment any item in the budget. It has to be there already, out of savings from other appropriations.”

Affirmed Father Joaquin Bernas, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution and Dean Emeritus of the Ateneo School of Law: “So savings in the President’s budget can be transferred to items in his budget not to other departments…You can’t use savings to augment a non-existing item in the budget.”

The Filipino people readily agree, the rallies, the survey results, the continuing mass indignation over PDAF and DAP, manifest proof of this. 

Yeah, it is difficult to fathom how BS Aquino could fail to see DAP and PDAF as two sides of the same coin used to buy the patronage of the people, enriched politicians and their cohorts, and corrupted the whole government system.

Yeah, pure BS for a president. Duh!