Insertions and questions

The Department of Budget and Management has a lot of explaining to do. It cannot play possum while the social and political conflagration is approaching combustible levels.

Let us begin with the unexpected commentary of former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio of the demised 1Sambayan political group.

“Remember, former Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan said the House and the Senate inserted P450 billion worth of public works funds into his department, but President Marcos vetoed only P29 billion. So that veto was just window dressing,” Carpio said.

PBBM, if I recall right, had proudly claimed that he had read cover-to-cover the more than 4,000 pages of the proposed GAA. He gave it his imprimatur.

The former Supreme Court justice continued: “So he cannot escape liability since he could have vetoed it, as those items were not in his National Expenditure Program. Congress inserted them. We don’t know who did it, but he should have vetoed it. Then after vetoing it, he should submit a supplemental budget.”

The President’s pathetic state of limbo over what is going on in the government is worrisome. The GAA was no longer in the hands of Congress. It was on his desk.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, who along with fellow Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was accused of making budget insertions in a recent Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, brought a copy of the GAA and asserted that there was nothing whatsoever listed to show that there were flood control projects under their names.

The only way an insertion could be done is via the unprogrammed funds which are under the tight control of the DBM, an agency directly under the Office of the President.

At this point it begs the question: who inserted the ₱P600 million and the ₱P355 million that the Department of Public Works and Highways felons claimed Villanueva and Estrada, respectively, eyed in the DBM’s unprogrammed funds?

Could it be possible that Villanueva and Estrada were made the sacrificial scapegoats? How was it possible that the two senators — who are with the opposition bloc — were able to sweet talk the DBM into inserting such huge amounts in the unprogrammed funds?

Nearly everybody who is linked to the administration had his or her hands on the pie.

As Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said, “The original sin is in Congress.” True. What took place in the DBM cannot, however, be a venial sin.

“Bakit nagkaganito ang ating gobyerno? (How did our government come to this?),” President BongBong Marcos asked. He forgot he is the President.

But the people know. In the hierarchy of accountability, the one in the apogee of power is the most accountable. Thus, as Justice Carpio enunciated, Marcos cannot escape accountability.

Of the other two most accountable, namely, House appropriations committee ex-chairman Zaldy Co and ex-speaker Martin Romualdez, one has escaped while the other resigned.

Who will be next? If the 21 September rally was not a strong enough message what will follow will be unimaginable.