Morales bias seen in Noy’s indictment

“Morales knew all these, but never lifted a finger to charge Noynoy and his budget chief.”

If outgoing Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales thinks she can shuck off that tag of her being highly biased, having actively engaged in selective justice, she should think again and again. Just because she indicted her yellow patron, Benigno Aquino, doesn’t get her off the bias and selective hook. All she did was merely to give him, along with his budget secretary, Butch Abad, a really weak slap on their wrists.

Morales indicted Aquino on “usurpation of legislative power,” which carries with it a penalty of imprisonment for six months, if at all, for Morales’ political patron, whom she goes all out to protect even in the last few weeks of her stay in her powerful position.

The former budget secretary issued a National Budget Circular to implement DAP, the stimulus package of the Aquino administration that aimed to fasttrack public spending and spark economic growth by declaring unspent funds as savings anytime and realigning the money to pet projects, including those of lawmakers.

DAP was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in July 2014 on the grounds the Constitution does not allow agencies to declare savings at any time and transfer the money to another branch of government or to projects not funded by the national budget.

Morales knew all these, but never lifted a finger to charge Noynoy and his budget chief.

Morales, who took less than three months to charge the three then-opposition senators and foes of the yellow president, Juan Ponce-Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla, for plunder with manufactured evidence, has taken over five years to indict Aquino over the unconstitutional DAP Funds and only gave the two a slap on the wrist. Yet she believes she has proven to the people that she has not dispensed selective justice?

Heck, she still proved her bias in further protecting Noynoy until the end of her term with this latest indictment.

Why just stop short in accusing Aquino of usurping legislative powers in approving the DAP, a claimed controversial economic stimulus program, when it was more than clear that the DAP funds diverted taxpayers’ money to projects that were not approved by Congress?

And were the funds just diverted to projects which were not approved by Congress? Weren’t these funds used by Aquino and Abad in bribing the congressmen (over 200 of them) with tens of millions of pesos to sign the impeachment complaint, and without even reading the Articles of Impeachment?

And not satisfied with just the House members, the DAP funds were also diverted to the senators, to give them the “incentive” to convict then sitting chief justice, the late Renato Corona. The yellow president openly called for the impeachment and conviction of Corona many times at public forums and every other opportunity he had to destroy him. That is because the late CJ made it possible for the High Court to ensure the Aquino-Cojuangcos parceled Hacienda Luisita to its workers but, at the same time, denied the hacienda owners less than what they asked from the court by way of compensation.

That doesn’t count in the Ombudsman’s investigation? And she has the nerve to call herself fair and just?

Morales already faced a lot of criticisms when she earlier had absolved her yellow patron in the DAP case and merely held Abad accountable for the P72-billion DAP implemented from 2011 to 2013. And what was the penalty Morales imposed on Abad? Why, just another weak slap on the wrist and an order to forfeit his one month salary!

In its resolution dated May 22, 2018 and approved on June 14, 2018, the Ombudsman said “a Re-evaluation of the case establishes that the individual actions of respondent Aquino and respondent-movant Abad showed a joint purpose and design to encroach on the powers of Congress by expanding the meaning of savings to fund programs, activities and projects under the DAP.”

Aquino, was also charged with graft and usurpation of authority by the Ombudsman last year over the botched Mamasapano counter-terrorism operation in 2015.

This, too, is a very weak charge that Morales slapped on Aquino, considering the fact Aquino was then the commander in chief of all the armed forces of the country. How then can he usurp power and authority when he is the power and authority in the Mamasapano massacre case?

As usual, the Liberal Party chieftains and members tried to portray Noynoy as innocent in claiming, “The DAP was crafted with the intention to deliver the services and infrastructure needed by the people and guided by the laws available to the executive. This is why former President Aquino gave his nod to the program.”

The LP hypocrisy truly knows no bounds. These are the LPs then in power and position, who got the DAP in the millions and certainly failed to use the funds for projects.

So who were stimulated by the stimulus fund, if not the LP senators and congressmen who were bribed by the stimulators, Aquino and Abad?