MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc have expressed concerns over the justification used by their colleagues in expelling former Negros Oriental congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr., particularly by tagging him as a terrorist.
At a press briefing yesterday, the three members of the bloc and two other congressmen said the case against Teves was strong enough to stand on its own even without the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) tagging him as a terrorist.
Makabayan is composed of party-list representatives France Castro of ACT Teachers, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan.
According to Castro, they decided to abstain during the plenary voting for Teves’ expulsion because they did not want to have any part in ATC’s apparent abuse of its power when it designated Teves as a terrorist.
She said the two other grounds cited by the House committee on ethics and privileges in its expulsion recommendation and which were eventually adopted by the House are enough to justify delisting Teves from the chamber.
Castro was referring to Teves’ application for political asylum in Timor Leste and his posting on social media of a video of himself dancing in his underwear.
She said his application for asylum was an indication that he was abandoning his constituents, while his vulgar video post constituted conduct “unbecoming of a public official.”
“But it was not the main (ground) cited in the committee report,” he added.
The lawmaker underscored that they tried vainly to strike out the terror tag in the committee report because they did not want it to be used by ATC “arbitrarily” on anyone.
Manuel said the House had only “legitimized” Teves’ terror designation, thus putting a “stain in the integrity of the House.”
“Can the house make its own discernment (if he was a terrorist) and just accept the ATC designation? That is the crucial part there, so we decided to abstain,” he added.
For his part, Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman said in a statement that he was not in favor of the terror tag on Teves as being one of the grounds for his expulsion.
“I believe that the crimes that Mr. Teves is accused of is punishable under the Revised Penal Code and to define them as terrorism might be expanding the specific intent and wording of the law on terrorism,” he pointed out.
Hataman added that under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, it is clear that the objectives of terrorism are to intimidate the public, create an atmosphere of fear and to destabilize the government, among others. All these, he said, “are not present in the cases filed against Teves.”
“We are setting a dangerous precedent in this ethics case against Congressman Teves by using his designation as a terrorist as one of the bases for his expulsion. It is my firm belief that that basis should have been stricken off the committee report,” he added.
Former speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, on the other hand, reiterated in a letter to Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe dated Aug. 17 that he voted “no” against the adoption of the committee report.
“It is the position of the undersigned that said negative vote reflected in the records of the House of Representatives,” the letter read.
In a press statement, the Davao del Norte representative had expressed “dismay and disagreement to the decision of the chamber” to kick out Teves.
He said Teves’ being AWOL, his application for asylum and his unsavory social media post cannot be considered “grave” offenses. “Others with heavier offenses did not get expelled,” he said in Filipino.
The “petty grounds used to expel Cong. Teves were just an excuse and that the real reason is the assassination of governor Roel Degamo last March 4, with Teves as one of the suspected masterminds,” Alvarez said.
“I do not know what the involvement of Cong.Teves is in the killing of Gov. Degamo but we have courts. Let due process take its course,” he added.