Bautista impeach complaint slated next week
The House Committee on Justice will take up the impeachment complaint against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista next week.
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali said the 23-page impeachment complaint of former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio will be tackled on Tuesday.
“We will hear the impeachment complaint against Comelec chairman Bautista Tuesday next week,” Umali said in a television interview hours before his panel discussed the two impeachment complaints against Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.
On August 24, House Secretary General Cesar Pareja transmitted the complaint to the Office of the Speaker after Deputy Speaker and Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, Assistant Minority Leader and Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque and Cavite Rep. Abraham Tolentino endorsed Bautista’s ouster.
The impeachment complaint against Sereno was filed by Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) founding chairman and president Dante Jimenez and Philippine Constitution Inc. lawyer Eligio Mallari.
During the panel voting on the complaint against Bautista, Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas warned that the complaint could suffer the same fate as that of the JimenezMallari petition, which was dismissed due to flawed verification.
“I know where you’re coming from because the complainant of the complaint you endorsed used wrong verification,” Fariñas told Roque, who moved to declare the Jimenez-Mallari complaint sufficient in form.
The House leader reminded the complainants to use the proper verification form.
The House Committee on Justice dropped the Jimenez-Mallari complaint because the verification used was for complaints endorsed by one-third of the House membership and was not for petitions filed by private individuals.
Umali said he is counting on the complainants to provide the authentic documents to back up their claims.
He said they can subpoena the bank documents and other related documents after the panel votes on the sufficiency in substance and in form of the complaint and once probable cause is determined.