The power of money — and control
FRONTLINE |
Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
Noynoy and his budget boy show clear signs of making the Supreme Court (SC) toe the Malacañang line.
It has become much too clear that Noynoy wants to control the high court, to the point of having slashed the SC’s budget last year, and again this year, with Malacañang insisting that P1.25 billion in the judiciary’s budget should be under the executive department’s control, using the mantra of “judicial transparency.”
The problem is that under the Constitution, the judiiciary is protected by its fiscal autonomy, besides which, Noynoy and his administration can hardly claim, in all honesty, that they are transparent, especially about the funds. To this day, Noynoy has not accounted for the expenses made on his 2011 P400-million intelligence funds, as well as his expenses in the matter of the funds in his presidential social fund (PSF). No project has been announced thus far that he had assisted though his PSF.
Today, despite the utter lack of Palace transparency, Noynoy even has added another P200 million to his inteligence fund, for a 2012 total of P600 million in intelligence fund alone, even if his office is strictly not into intelligence gathering, which is the reason he cut off intel funds in other departments..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110831com2.html
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