[NEWS] Pimentel: P1-B release sans Congress nod makes GMA a dictator

(Publisher's note: Story taken from the MindaNews daily dispatch of news and views on Mindanao. Not yet available at www.mindanews.com) . Photo from Senator Pimentel's website.)


DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 June) – If the President wants to augment the budget of the armedforces to boost its fighting capability, she will have to comply with constitutional process by seekingCongress' authorization because “without that, shewill turn herself into a dictator," Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. said in a press statement.

Pimentel said there is no question that more funds are needed to keep government troops in fightingform and a supplemental P1 billion fund for military hardware and other requirements “will go a longway in winning the battle against the armed insurgents but it cannot be denied that they will usepublic funds without the authorization of Congress.”

"In my view, it would be better if we will have a new budget that incorporatesappropriation to upgrade the capability of the armed forces," he said.

On June 16, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo instructed the Department of Budget andManagement to release P1 billion to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the PhilippineNational Police (PNP) to finance their operations against the communist New People's Army (NPA).

Arroyo said the move, apart from the P5 billion per year for modernization, is expected togive the armed forces the “decisive edge” against the NPA.

The President said this is a "fiscal investment that will yield peace dividends to the economy."

Pimentel said several families in Bukidnon who have nothing to do with the insurgency war havealready been evicted from their homesteads because of the President's “ill-advised all out warpolicy.”

He warned that such a move by the President, also the commander in chief of the Armed Forces,"could place the far flung areas of the country in a state of turmoiland could adversely affect the state of law and order in the urban areas also". (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)