Photo credit: Philippine Daily Inquirer
The highest official of the executive branch in the Philippines threatened the Supreme Court (SC).
This arose out of the SC decision to declare the Aquino regime Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) illegal, unconstitutional.
Members of the Philippine Congress reacted sharply to the executive's war vs. the Supreme Court. Following the verdict, Philippine media reported courts to be in a black mood. It will be recalled that during the farcical impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, members of the judicial sector staged numerous protests where they donned protest shirts colored black during Mondays.
Over the past few days, a substantial number of media reports tried to detail the kind of expenditures Mr. Aquino made on the more than One Hundred Fifty Billion Philippine Pesos (Php150,000,000,000) releases under DAP. In most of these spendings, very little went to providing jobs or helping victims of calamities such as the Thirty Billion Philippine Pesos (Php30,000,000,000) given to the Central Bank as fund infusions, among so many others.
Black dress protests have already started in the provinces, particularly in Iloilo, the very hometown of Mr. Aquino's biggest ally, Senate President Franklin Drilon. In other places around the country, court workers also donned black dress to protest the recent acts of Mr. Aquino and his government following the declaration of the DAP to be illegal -- including the so-called fake resignation of the Philippine budget secretary, Florencio Abad, Jr. also known as Boots.
Judiciary workers are also up in arms over the threat of Mr. Aquino to abolish funds for their sector in the public service.
Photo credit: Philippine Daily Inquirer