House body finds impeach complaint 'sufficient in form'

MANILA, Philippines – At least 31 members of the justice committee of the House of Representatives, including those from the opposition bloc, voted unanimously yesterday to declare the fourth and latest impeachment complaint against President Arroyo “sufficient in form.”

Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor, panel chairman, announced the “unanimous” decision after the motion of Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan, duly seconded by La Union Rep. Victor Ortega, was carried by the committee members.

Bohol Rep. Adam Relson Jala, a neophyte lawmaker who just passed the Bar examinations, found the complaint “insufficient in form” as it failed to allege violations of the 1987 Constitution, and its failure as well to state the lapse of the one-year ban. 

But Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the legal luminaries in the chamber, clarified the complaint of businessman Jose de Venecia III “need not make that distinction” since they can just take “judicial notice” of it anyway.

“It was properly endorsed. There is no more need to make material allegations. We can take judicial notice of it. This is sufficient in form. It was seasonably filed after the one-year ban (on filing impeachment complaints),” Lagman reiterated.

Meantime, all the other complaints filed – those of lawyer Guillermo Sotto, Manuel L. Quezon III and Marcos loyalist lawyer Oliver Lozano – are deemed “prohibited pleadings” that are “barred,” according to House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor.

Defensor, who represents the third district of Iloilo, said “any and all” complaints – in whatever form – are barred, in light of the fact that the De Venecia complaint has already been deemed “initiated,” after it was referred to the House justice committee.

“I take the position that any and all new complaints are barred. The JDV III complaint has been properly initiated,” he told The STAR.

He, along with Deputy Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, pointed out that this is in “compliance” with the ruling of the Supreme Court in the petition of lawyer Ernesto Francisco, where it held that only one complaint will be entertained after it is initiated.

House justice committee chairman Defensor told his colleagues that they “cannot prolong the (impeachment) process.”

“Let the ax fall if it has to fall. Time is not in our favor, otherwise, we might succeed in impeaching a President who is no longer in office.”

“Impeachment is the instrument to preserve, not to destroy, government. It should not and cannot be the instrument for partisan politics of political vendetta or hatred or advance personal and political aspirations,” Defensor added.

The latest impeachment complaint was filed by De Venecia III, son of former speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who was ousted last February after the former testified in the botched $329-million ZTE scandal that implicated the First Family.

Speculations have it that the former speaker’s son filed the complaint because he only wanted to run for senator or take the place of his father, who is on his third and last term as congressman of Pangasinan’s fourth district.

The younger De Venecia denied all these, however.

The former speaker attended yesterday’s hearing at the justice committee, even if he was not a member, to show support for the complaint of his son, who was also there to monitor the proceedings.

Meanwhile, Malacañang remained indifferent to the impeachment complaint filed against President Arroyo even if it has passed the first step in Congress. – Marvin Sy