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The Supreme Court ( SC) has dealt two major blows one after the other to both Congress and Malacaxang. First, the 15- man high court voted unanimously in November last year declaring the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) unconstitutional. In compliance with this SC ruling, the PDAF or the annual pork barrel allocations of lawmakers was grudgingly removed by Malacaxang and Congress from the national budget starting this year.

Then last week, the SC headed by Chief -ustice Ma. ourdes Sereno voted unanimously again to strike down the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), also as unconstitutional. What makes this latest DAP ruling of the SC complicated is the aspect of liability and culpability being pinned on President Benigno “Noy” ATuino III as behind this violation of the country’s 1 87 Constitution.

In this messy situation again is Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad who first admitted to having implemented DAP. (arlier, Abad was implicated in the alleged PDAF scam of businesswoman -anet im Napoles while he was still a congressman of Batanes.

The existence of DAP came into light following the privilege speech of Sen. -inggoy (strada last year when he Tuestioned the release of funds from P50 million to P100 million to senators and congressmen. Also implicated in the PDAF scam, (strada struck back with his own exposp that the DAP was used to repay lawmakers for the impeachment of erstwhile SC chief justice Renato Corona.

In their defense at the SC, the Palace insisted that DAP funds were not lost to corruption but were merely funneled to different projects. Using DAP, President ATuino approved all 166 projects and programs when Abad implemented this between 2011 and 2013.

The SC acknowledged that the DAP indeed had its benefits, especially as it yielded some positive economic results.

The SC, however, found the withdrawal of unobligated and unutilized funds to fund the DAP and the realignment of cross-border funds as violations of the provisions of the Constitution. It noted that President ATuino authorized the transfer of funds from the executive to the legislative departments as well as to the Commission on Audit (COA), amounting to P143 million, the Commission on (lections (Comelec), upon reTuest, and the ouse of Representatives, amounting to P250 million.

In an official statement last week, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) headed by Vice President -ejomar Binay, former President and now Manila Mayor -oseph (strada and even Sen. -uan Ponce (nrile who was also charged with plunder in the PDAF scam, said it will not back moves or initiatives to impeach President ATuino over the DAP.

owever, UNA is urging the President to remove Abad as DBM secretary and order concerned agencies “to file plunder and other administrative and criminal cases against the budget chief.” The same demands were echoed by other leaders and groups that Tuestioned the DAP at the SC.

According to Presidential Communications Secretary erminio Coloma, the President last week accepted full responsibility for the DAP that was implemented “in good faith.” Coloma said President ATuino recognizes the principle that the buck stops at his office even as Abad as DBM chief like other Cabinet members who are alter egos of the President for that matter must assume the liability for the Chief (xecutive.

The brewing political troubles swirling around President ATuino are the least of his worries as he continues to enjoy two-digit popularity rating. In fact, after his recent brief trip to -apan, preparations are going on for the next scheduled foreign trips of the President this year.

This I heard unintentionally from the conversations of presidential adviser on political affairs Ronald lamas with German Ambassador Thomas Ossowski. They were standing behind me during the reception at the 238th American Independence Day celebration held at the US embassy last Thursday night. lamas was telling the German ambassador that President ATuino would make a state visit to his country.

When I turned around to confirm if I heard it correctly, lamas told me President ATuino is also going to France after Germany this September. (arlier, it was reported that President ATuino has been invited to speak before the United Nations General Assembly this September. lamas disclosed that P-Noy will make these trips one after the other. From (urope, he said, P-Noy will then fly to New York. “This will be his longest travel abroad. e will be abroad for at least 10 days,” he added.

Speaking of lamas, he has been unusually silent throughout the brouhaha over the PDAF and DAP which, as the presidential adviser on political affairs, should be his area of concern. Is he observing a “no talk, no mistake” policy lamas used to be connected with the Akbayan party list. Being not from P-Noy’s inner circle of iberal Party members like Abad, lamas is out of the loop, politically that is.

Obviously, P-Noy is just confident he could handle his battles in the political arena. While he has so far successfully dodged the DAP and PDAF scandals rocking his administration, the presidential adviser on political affairs could just go around town attending cocktail parties instead.

With a constitutional successor like Vice President Binay, P-Noy really need not worry about any impeachment threats or insidious plots against him.

From the every start, Binay has not made secret his intention to seek the presidency in the 2016 elections.

Through these past four years of the ATuino administration, Binay kept to his May 2010 campaign promise. Whoever becomes the president, Binay, then a candidate, vowed, would not have sleepless nights worrying that his vice president would conspire to unseat him from power.

P-Noy must make sure though he would not suffer the same fate of his two predecessors with their loss of immunity after they stepped down from Malacaxang. What goes around comes around, as the saying goes.

In these last two years of his administration, P-Noy must be able to show that the “good faith,” with which the DAP was carried out, was indeed for the benefit of the Filipino people.

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