Culpability for plunder

Department of Finance (DoF) Circular 003-2024, without presidential approval, is immoral, illegal and unconstitutional. It is an order to steal money from the poor, the sick and the patients in hospitals.

Department of Budgetand Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, using the DoF circular of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, withdrew P30 billion from the National Treasury and issued advices on allotments and notices of cash allocations for spending the whole amount.

The elements necessary to consummate the crime are present. What is to be considered to fully appreciate the capability of the two personalities to commit the crime is a prerequisite to determine their guilt beyond reasonable doubt, with intent for monetary gain by both of them.

Both Recto and Pangandaman are experts in their respective areas of responsibility. Both are familiar with legislation on appropriating funds for programs and projects, and on unprogrammed ones.

Both more importantly are experts on the inner workings of the Third Congress or the Bicameral Conference Committee, which many learned and honest men of the past had considered a menace to the interests of the poor. It was in the bicameral committee that senators and congressmen crafted the unconstitutional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and various variants of the congressional pork barrel.

President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr., in his First State of the Nation Address on 24 June 1966, said crisis strengthens the interdependence between Congress and the Executive branch.

Both are bound together. Congress is the seat of reason and the Executive is the seat of the will. Reason without will is impotent. Both are bound together to be “reasonably effective.”

At the height of the PS-DBM catastrophe, under DBM Secretary Pangandaman, Senator Imee Marcos recommended the abolition of the procurement service.

Former Senate President Tito Sotto recommended the prosecution of the PS-DBM officials, and still many others recommended the removal from office of the DBM secretary.

The PS-DBM was a catastrophe. It was designed by the DBM but caused confusion and derailed the state from fulfilling its primordial mission of spreading society’s fortune from the affluent areas of the metropolis to the poorest of the poor in the farthest barangay.

The DBM is responsible for the formulation and implementation of the National Budget to attain the national socio-economic plans and objectives, its general functions including the maintenance of the accounting system.

The PS-DBM was a catastrophe because it was devoid of checks and balances like the observance of the basic principle required under the accounting system.

The Department of Budget and Management and its attached agency, the Procurement Service, being regulatory organizations were supposed to be manned by men and women adept in performance management with the capability to sustain its rendition of service even amid a crisis like Covid-19.

The failure of the accounting office of the PS-DBM under Secretary Pangandaman to prepare and submit the required financial statements within the deadline required by law was inexcusable for such failure resulted in more loss and misuse of funds and resources.

The catastrophic financial disaster that occurred could have been avoided had DBM and its attached agency observed strictly the simple provision of Presidential Decree 1445, otherwise known as the Auditing Code of the Philippines.

President Marcos Sr. himself explained the three broad goals of government.

“Our overriding national objective is the satisfaction of basic needs, the improvement of income opportunities and the more prudent management of the country’s resources as the bases for the achievement of the egalitarian self-reliant participatory humane and just society.”

President Marcos Sr. zeroed in on the management of government resources.

“Resources of the government shall be managed, expended or utilized in accordance with law and regulations and safeguarded against loss or wastage through illegal or improper disposition, to ensure efficiency, economy and effectiveness in the operation of government.” (To be continued)