House panel affirms dismissal of impeach complaint vs Bautista
The House committee on justice voted yesterday to approve its report dismissing the impeachment complaint against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista for insufficiency of form.
“This report together with the accompanying resolution of dismissal is now approved,” committee chairman Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro declared after announcing the 19-2 vote.
The panel later conducted another round of voting after Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas called attention to a requirement in the rules that a report should be approved “by a majority vote of all committee members.”
The second voting result was 26-2. The panel is composed of 51 regular members and several House leaders who sit in an ex-officio capacity.
The two members who opposed the approval of the report were Gwen Garcia of Cebu and Harry Roque of party-list group Kabayan.
The two, together with Abraham Tolentino of Cavite, endorsed the impeachment complaint against Bautista, which was filed by former Negros Oriental representative Jacinto Paras and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.
Paras is the same ally of President Duterte who has filed with the Office of the Ombudsman a complaint against Sen. Risa Hontiveros in connection with text messages he exchanged with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre ll during a recent Senate hearing.
In the exchange, Hontiveros said Aguirre and Paras were “plotting” her ouster from the Senate by filing a case against her.
A few days ago, Paras filed with the Office of the President an administrative case against overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang for allegedly revealing bank transaction records of President Duterte.
Paras presented the complaint after the President threatened to form an independent commission to investigate Carandang and his boss, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, for supposed corruption.
Umali said his committee would now submit its report and the dismissal resolution to the House proper for plenary consideration.
He said under the impeachment rules, one-third of the plenary can reverse the committee decision.
If that happens, the panel would draft the articles of impeachment so they could be sent to the Senate for trial.
The impeachment complaint against Bautista was based largely on the allegation of his wife Patricia that he has amassed more than P1 billion in ill-gotten wealth. Bautista has denied the accusation.
The rule of the House on the sufficiency of form requires a complainant to attest before the chamber’s secretary general that his allegations are “of his personal knowledge or based on authentic documents.” The attestation is legally known as verification.
The verification signed by Paras and his co-complainant Topacio states that their allegations “are true of our own knowledge and belief on the basis of our reading and appreciation of the documents and other records pertinent thereto.”
Curiously, Topacio did not show up in the justice committee hearing last Sept. 20, when the panel voted to dismiss the complaint against Bautista.
Paras and Topacio tried to correct their error and comply with the rule on form by submitting a new verification, which the Umali committee rejected.
Fariñas said the substitute document, like the original, was also defective, since it was not signed before the House secretary general.
“It was also improperly filed because it was addressed to the House of Representatives and not to the committee on justice,” he said.
He said a reading of the complaint showed that Paras and Topacio clearly lack personal knowledge of their accusations against Bautista.
“At least four paragraphs in their complaint quoted news reports in The Philippine STAR written by Janvic Mateo,” he added.
Paras has vowed to question the dismissal of the complaint before the Supreme Court.