Rogue regime

“Midstream, Noynoy also created the unconstitu-

tional DAP which was supposedly a source of stimulus fund but turned out to be a slush fund.”

The vicious cycle of unconstitutionality under the regime of former President Noynoy Aquino was completed with the assessment of legal experts that the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) violates the Charter and won’t stand up to Supreme Court (SC) scrutiny.

The first and last significant executive acts of Noynoy were all considered not in accordance with the Basic Law that speaks a lot about the character of the yellow President and his amateur administration.

In December 2010, the SC declared unconstitutional Noynoy’s Executive Order 1 creating the Philippine Truth Commission as the High Court ruled it “violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution” by focusing on the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Noynoy created the Truth Commission to investigate solely the alleged scandals under the nine-year Arroyo administration. It was supposed to be headed by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.

Now comes the assessment at a meeting among legal advisers of the Palace, security officials and leaders of Congress that the CAB, which was a document signed between the administration of Noynoy and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), should be stricken out of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) for being unconstitutional.

The Senate version carried the CAB which, according to senators, was done to honor the agreement with the MILF.

Among the controversial BBL sections adopted from the CAB was the opt-in provision which in the Senate version allows 39 barangays in North Cotabato and six towns in Lanao del Norte to join the Bangsamoro region following a plebiscite.

The House version of the BBL has a similar provision but stipulates that local government units may only join the Bangsamoro region if their mother province or town also votes in favor of inclusion.

The proposed Bangsamoro seeks to include the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, parts of Lanao del Norte, the cities of Cotabato and Isabela, and other regions which may volunteer to join the territory.

President Rodrigo Duterte made the final decision to strike it off by adopting the House version of the bill that did not contain it.

The late Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago had warned the CAB violated sovereignty since it would create a Bangsamoro substate.

“In December 2010, the SC declared unconstitutional Noynoy’s Executive Order 1 creating the Philippine Truth Commission.”

Santiago said among the unconstitutional provisions is the creation of a ministerial form of government which is distinct from the entire country that exists as a republic under a presidential government.

Legislators said allowing Bangsamoro to assimilate provinces will be a dangerous precedent since it may lead to other provinces or local groups either representing ethnicity or political belief to demand a separate state “on the petition of 10 percent of the constituents” of a province.

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Vicente Mendoza also said Congress does not have the authority to pass certain provisions of the BBL because of their patent unconstitutionality such as the reference in the bill of the autonomous region as “territory and ancestral homeland” of the Bangsamoro people which he said is contrary to the Constitution.

“The term territory is defined as a part of country separated from the rest and under the jurisdiction of another country, such as the Philippines was an unincorporated territory of US, part of US and separated before independence,” Mendoza said.

Midstream, Noynoy also created the unconstitutional DAP, which was supposedly a source of stimulus fund but turned out to be a slush fund to support the political agenda of the Liberal Party.

It was exposed as a tool in the Senate impeachment court to convict former Chief Justice Renato Corona. The DAP, which in some estimates used up P200 billion of funds diverted from the budget, was also called the Presidential pork barrel of Noynoy.

Budget Secretary Ben Diokno who was among the fiercest opponent of the DAP, during oral arguments held at the SC, described the DAP as a colossal laundering machine where “savings” are cleansed, dried, pressed and then reissued as new authorities to spend for programs, projects and activities that have not gone through prior congressional review.

Unconstitutional acts from the start, in mid-term and up to the end indicate that Noynoy and his administration either did not know better or that they are patently illegal in their ways.