A Trapolice State

That where we're headed.

Read this too: ‘The Great Raid on the Treasury’

The opposition appears to have caught on only recently on why Malacañang is bent on delaying proceedings on the P1 trillion budget for 2006.

Gloria Arroyo is determined to shift to a parliamentary form of government. She’s readying a campaign chest to buy legislators for the initial step, that is, for Congress to come up with the proposed revisions, and to buy local officials for the final step, that is, ratification of the proposed changes in a plebiscite.

And as during the 2004 presidential election, Gloria will be raiding the treasury to buy her a new constitution. Even with the money, there’s no way a new charter will be adopted in a free plebiscite. So this early, we’re sure preparations are already in place to rig the plebiscite.

But let’s take one thing at a time. With a budget law in place, it won’t be easy diverting appropriations for specific programs and projects. For Gloria to get a virtual blank check, the proposed 2006 budget has to be scuttled so the 2005 budget kicks in under the automatic reenactment provision of the Constitution.

This early, Gloria is announcing the release almost every day of P500 million for this and that project and even boasting about spending money that fast on the basis of a reenacted 2005 budget. That is the pattern we expect to see for the rest of the year if this year’s budget is not passed.

It’s now the second week of February. The House, from which every appropriation measure must originate, still has to pass the proposed budget. The House leadership said Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the committee on appropriations, will sponsor the budget bill next week as his valedictory before moving on to the budget department.

If the Palace really wants fast action on the measure, it has only to crack the whip on Lakas House members. Plenary debates can easily be abbreviated. There really is time for the House to pass the measure before the end of the month. In the same way that it had enough time in November or in December last year or January this year to act on the proposed budget as repeatedly sought by the Senate.

Isn't this a repeat of the 2004 re-enacted budget trick na ginamit ni Arroyo sa 2004 Election campaign niya?