Impeachment decision congressmen's will

This refers to the recent performance survey conducted by Pulse Asia, Inc. on top national officials that showed the rating of House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. go down from 45 percent to 41 percent.

Some political observers attributed Speaker Belmonte’s drop in rating to the accusation of a Metro Manila congressman that the Speaker pressured the 188 congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona.

It’s not in the nature and character of Speaker Belmonte to do that. Having worked with the Speaker for nine years (2001-2010) when he was mayor of Quezon City and I as a city councilor and chairman of the committee on ways and means, I know whereof I speak.

I remember when then Mayor Belmonte asked me to author and sponsor the landmark Quezon City Ordinance 1080 Series of 2001 which called for the revision of the obsolete tax code and the alignment of business tax rate system from municipal-based to city-based system “to conform with the need of the time.”

Never did the Speaker compel me and my colleagues to sign and/or approve the tax-hike measure which turned to be the saving grace for the then financially ailing Quezon City government. For with the additional funds the measure had generated, the city government was able not only to repay its mounting debt but also made Quezon City the country’s richest city.

I hope I have made my point:  If the 188 congressmen signed the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Corona, they did it with their own will and volition and-not with compulsion from our former mayor.