Teves suspension violates due process
This is not a brief for Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. It has nothing to do with the charges of three counts of murder and the illegal possession of firearms nor has this anything to do with his being the subject of the present investigation in the murder of Governor Roel Degamo and eight others.
It has something to do with fairness and objectivity. It has everything to do with the due process of law. This is an indictment of all transgressors of the rule of law and the due process clause of the Constitution.
The House of Representatives by a vote of 293-0, upon the recommendation of the House ethics committee, unanimously approved the 60-day suspension of Teves, for staying abroad with an expired travel clearance. At the time the suspension was handed down Teves has been absent for thirteen days after the expiration of his travel clearance.
To the mind of the members of the Lower House of Congress, their colleague’s failure to return to the country to perform his duties constituted “disorderly conduct” affecting their “dignity, integrity and reputation” as “members of the House of Representatives“, meriting a suspension of two months which will deprive Teves of his rights and privileges as a member of the august body.
INCREDIBLE! Unanimous decision approving the suspension without any member present opposing it or at least questioning how the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges reached its recommendation to suspend the beleaguered lawmaker? Whoa, what a transgression of due process of law!!!
Coming as it does from the legislators themselves who should know better, such a decision makes it a mockery of the Constitution and a tragedy for the country.
According to the chairman of the ethics committee, the recommendation was made after “conducting a rigid and exhaustive investigation” of Teves case.
“Rigid and exhaustive investigation”? Whom are they fooling, themselves?
In an investigation of any case, the person subject of the investigation is allowed to give his side of the story.
Did the ethics committee allow
Teves to explain himself? The answer is a resounding NO!
He was asked to appear before the committee to give his reasons why despite the expiration of his travel clearance he is unable to come back to the Philippines. He readily made himself available and requested that he be allowed to appear before the committee via zoom, meaning a virtual appearance. Instead of welcoming it, the ethics committee made the unethical conduct of denying the request!
What’s wrong with Teves arguing his case via zoom? The mechanics of an open and fair hearing is not compromised in a virtual hearing. Has not Congress been doing official virtual communications in its deliberations? We are in the digital age, and the world has adopted it as an effective means of communication.
There could have been an intelligent and dispassionate exchange of ideas and reasoning but the committee members were bent on deciding against him.
They have prejudged Teves’ case. They adjudged him guilty of disorderly conduct without giving him the elementary courtesy accorded to a colleague. And all the members present in the plenary session unanimously gave their approbation to this so glaring violation of a monumental constitutional right!!!
Section 1, Article III of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution explicitly declares:
“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
Are not the lawmakers aware that this basic constitutional right is granted to every person?
Are they even aware that this sacred due process clause is enshrined in the Constitution?
Due process simply means: “It hears before it condemns.”
Why did they condemn Teves without hearing his side?
Why the lynch mob mentality?
“All
the members present in the plenary session unanimously gave their approbation to this so glaring violation of a monumental constitutional right.
“What’s wrong with Teves arguing his case via zoom?