MANILA TIMES: RIC SALUDO - THE MOUNTING PILE OF 'AQUINOMALIES'

Believe it or not, the Aquino administration has surpassed its predecessor in corruption. Between pork barrel trebling under President Benigno Aquino 3rd to about P25 BILLION a year, his unaudited, unlegislated and unprecedented releases under the so-called DAP, P137 BILLION AS OF OCTOBER 1), and smuggling hitting nearly $20 billion or some P860 billion a year, plus undiminished jueteng, these "Aquinomalies' may already swell to over P200 BILLION A YEAR.

MLA STANDARD: ROY CALLS FOR '99M' PROTEST TO END PORK

Saying the P137.3-BILLION DAP was illegal, a lawyer on Thursday called on the Filipinos to increase the "Million People March movement" to "99 million" to put an end to the illegal and unconstitutional use of public funds by public officials. Judd Roy, one of the defense counsels of ousted CJ Renato Corona, also called for an end to what he described as the deteriorating "state of political culture" in the country arising from widespread corruption in the government. Roy recalled how he had been cited in contempt by the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, last year when he first disclosed that Malacañang had offered P100M worth of pork-barrel projects to the senator-judges to convict his client.

PHILSTAR: ATTY JOSE SISION - LAST OPTIONS P-Noy SHOULD NOT BLAME the past administration for the anomalies and irregularities now happening in his administration. He cannot keep on citing Arroyo's alleged misdeeds and corrupt acts to show that his administration is squeaky clean and moving towards the matuwid na daan as he repeatedly claims. HE CANNOT DIVERT THE PEOPLES' ATTENTION anymore on the rampant misuse and misappropriation of the taxpayers' money through the pork barrel system that has become more massive and brazen now. As people in the streets used to say, KUMITA NA YAN. In the light of these recent exposes and admissions, impeachable offenses have been apparently committed. Most notable here are the CULPABLE VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION, and GRAFT AND CORRUPTION THROUGH BRIBERY.

MLA STANDARD: TINGTING BARES POLL FRAUD
Claims Team PNoy 'digitally elected;' P30m to fix mess

The aunt-in-law of President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday accused Palace and military officials of conspiring to commit "electoral fraud" allegedly by manipulating the results of the automated 2013 mid-term polls that made nine Team PNoy candidates win the senatorial race. Margarita "Tingting" Cojuangco, wife of President Aquino's uncle Jose Peping Cojuangco, said the government is now spending P30 million "to fix the mess and cover up the crime."

MLA STANDARD: JOJO ROBLES - "BOY SISI"

The "BS" in front of his surname should no longer be taken to mean Benigno Simeon. Instead, Aquino should now be called "Boy Sisi."

More than three years into his term, Aquino still cannot resist blaming his predecessor when things go wrong for him. And even when his own in the face, like the creation of the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program funds, he still will not accept responsibility.

MLA STANDARD: 2 Ched execs quit, slam Abad for P10b anomaly - Two ranking officials of the Commission on Higher Education on Tuesday submitted their resignation to Pres. Benigno Aquino III after accusing Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and CHED chairperson Patricia Licuanan of allegedly 'bleeding' the national coffers dry to benefit a United States university. CHED Director Carmina Alonzo resigned in protest of the "anomalous" P10-billion scientific research project to be based in the US that is being pushed by Abad and Licuanan even "without legal basis" and "without the benefit of public bidding."

DAP = Drilon, Abad, PNoy

INQUIRER: CONRADO DE QUIROS - That is what makes the effort to secure the conviction of Corona by this route, or ruse, so uninspired, if not benighted. It's certainly supremely ironic. At the very least, it has to be asked if the senators would have voted differently without it. Of course Enrile is a fickle ally, one whose loyalties, shifting from president to president, legitimate or otherwise with the exception of Cory, are for sale. And he was the Senate president turned presiding officer of the impeachment trial, which explains his special treatment in the DAP afterward. But if appeasing him and the other senators was what it took to rid the world of Corona, then it leaves a bad taste in the mouth."

ABS-CBN NEWS: Father Joaquin Bernas, a constitutional expert and Dean Emeritus of the Ateneo School of Law, said Congress may authorize the President to transfer savings from their departments to augment savings in the same department. "So savings in the President's budget can be transferred to items in his budget not to other departments."

Gloria Arroyo inadvertently exposes Noynoy Aquino’s true character

http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2013/02/gloria-arroyo-inadvertedly-exposes-noynoy-aquinos-true-character/

NA HOSTAGE

PLEASE HELP OUR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS

A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on Kalayaan Avenue near Batasan. Nothing was moving. Suddenly, a man knocks on the window.

The driver rolls down the window and asks, "What's going on?"

"Terrorist have kidnapped the entire House of Representative and and Senate, and they're asking for a P100 million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them all in petrol and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, collecting donations."

"How much is everyone giving, on average?" the driver asks.

The man replies, "Roughly a liter."

RAPPLER: DAP: 'BUDGET WITHIN A BUDGET, ILLEGAL'

Diokno said that by realigning savings to non-existing budget items in the General Appropriations Act, the government ended up creating a budget within a budget without consulting Congress. "Ito bastusan eh... Ang ginawa ng executive is that they sliced and diced the budget and repackaged it and came out with a new  budget which is 72-billion worth," Diokno said. According to Diokno, the appropriation rules state that the executive branch must consult Congress if they intend to appropriate funds for an entirely different item.

RAPPLER: PALACE SPENDING PROGRAM 'ILLEGAL'

"This is a crime!" Former Senator Joker Arroyo said there is no other way to call Malacañang's release of P1.107 billion to select lawmakers supposedly to boost government spending because it is not covered by law.

Another legal luminary, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, also branded the executive branch's Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as illegal, saying it undermines Congress' power of the purse.

ABS-CBN NEWS: Former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno insisted Wednesday that Malacañang cannot augment funding for new projects but can only add funds to existing programs. "The constitution is very clear that no law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriation. They allow augmentation of existing budget items in the budget. The President, Senate President and Speaker can augment any item in the budget. It has to be there already, out of savings from other appropriations," he said in an interview on ANC's Headstart.