PRESIDENT ARROYO COMMITTED CULPABLE CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS ON THREE
COUNTS, PIMENTEL SAYS
Declaring that democracy’s survival rest on faithful adherence to the
Constitution, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) today
charged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with culpable violation of the
Constitution and betrayal of public trust on three counts for which she is
answerable under the fundamental law.
In his speech before the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) on
Constitution Day at the Manila Polo Club in Forbes Park, Makati City,
Pimentel raised three charges against the President:
1. Illegal use of the trust funds raised through the road users tax and the
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for her own purposes during
the last presidential election.
2. The President’s illegal authorization of the payment of $68 million or
P3.762 billion for the purchase of six search and rescue vessels for the use
of the Coast Guard without congressional authority.
3. The President’s willful and blatant abuse of her appointing power.
The opposition senator said he could not imagine that the President is
unaware of the serious implications of her culpable transgressions of the
Constitution and the Rule of Law, pointing out that although she is not a
lawyer, she has a good legal team in Malacañang and has access to brilliant
minds of the Bar.
“Her misuse and abuse of the powers of the presidential office then, cannot
but be deemed to have been done maliciously, that is willfully and
deliberately, for which she is answerable under the Constitution and the
applicable laws,” he said.
On the first charge, Pimentel said the President had some P1.4 billion
raised from the road users’ tax transferred to fund her patently partisan
political project: “Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin.”
He said the President also authorized the transfer of some P4 billion from
OWWA funds to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) supposedly
to enable the poor to have access to public health services.
“While the objectives might have been good, it was still wrong for the
President to have done so. The reason is that the road users’ fund and the
OWWA fund are trust funds,” Pimentel said. “The funds, therefore, cannot be
used for any purpose other than that specified in the law that created
them.”
The Constitution mandates that: “All mo(nies) collected on any tax levied
for a special purpose shall be treated as a special fund and paid out for
such purpose only [Article VI, Section 29 (3) 1st sentence].”
Pimentel said that by misusing the trust funds of the road users law and the
OWWA, at the very least, she betrayed the public trust for which she should
be made answerable.
On the second charge, Pimentel said the President gave “full powers” on July
30, 2001 to then Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon
Alvarez to meet, confer and negotiate in behalf of the Republic a loan
agreement in an amount not exceeding $71,136,000 for the purpose of buying
the six vessels of the Coast Guard.
Subsequently, he said the President ordered the release of special allotment
release orders (SAROs) on various occasions to cover the costs ($68.4
million or some P3.762 billion) of the acquisition of the six vessels.
The minority leader said it was wrong for the President to have done so,
citing the Constitution which provides: No money shall be paid out of the
Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law. [Article VI,
section 29 (1)].
“By illegally authorizing the payment of the vessels in question without any
Congressional appropriation, the President culpably violated the
Constitution for which she is answerable,” he said.
On the third charge, Pimentel said the President abused her power of
appointment by appointing undersecretaries and assistant secretaries in
excess of the number authorized by the Administrative Code of 1987.
For instance, he said the President appointed six undersecretaries and six
assistant secretaries to the Department of National Defense although the
Administrative Code provides for only one undersecretary.
He said that the President appointed five commissioners – one commissioner
and four associate commissioners – to the Bureau of Immigration and
Deportation even as the law (Republic Act No. 613), as amended, provides
that there should only be three.
The opposition senator said the President abused her appointing power by
appointing Luis Lorenzo as chairman of Land Bank of the Philippines in
violation of its corporate charter which states that the secretary of
finance should be the ex-officio chair of the bank.
He also questioned the appointment of Lorenzo as chair of the Quedancorp
which is contrary to the law which provides that the secretary of
agriculture should be the chair of the corporate entity.
“While the power of the President to fill up offices created by law is
acknowledged, the presidential power to appoint is circumscribed by
applicable laws. In other words, the power to appoint is not absolute. It is
limited not only by the Constitutional requirement as to qualifications but
also by law as to the number of offices that must be filled up,” he argued.
Pimentel said the illegal implications of the President’s abuse of her
appointing power are the following:
1. The persons, thus appointed, illegally exercise powers either by
presiding at or by participating in the meetings of their respective offices
or Boards;
2. They illegally make decisions that may affect the rights and obligations
of the people dealing with them; and
3. They illegally collect salaries, perks and per diems that are attached to
those offices.
Pimentel said the illegal exercise of the power of appointment by the
President renders nugatory the powers of the purse that the Constitution has
placed in the hands of Congress.
Pimentel said without the President’s honest-to-goodness commitment to
uphold the Constitution, she won’t be able to implement it for the good of
the people.
And without the people’s aggressive militancy to defend the Constitution and
the Rule of Law, their basic rights and the fundamental liberties would
become dead letters that mean nothing to anyone, he added.
“May I therefore, suggest that the Philconsa take up the cudgels in behalf
of the people. After all, the Philconsa, I think, was organized precisely to
protect the Constitution and uphold the Rule of Law. I suggest that there is
no better opportunity for Philconsa to pursue its primary mandate than when
blatant challenges confront the Constitution and the Rule of Law as they do
today.
“I suggest that Philconsa do what Leonides told the invaders at Thermophylae
some 2500 years ago: ‘Here’s where we draw the line and beyond it, you shall
not pass!’ In fine, Philconsa, perhaps, ought to consider filing the
necessary impeachment papers against the President as was implied earlier,”
Pimentel said.
Date: February 8, 2005
Ref: Omeng / (02) 5526731 |
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