Sunday, September 30, 2007 Speak out: President won’t support move to oust JDV By Percival de la Torre
IF reports were true that members of the majority coalition in the Lower House have expressed their support to President Arroyo amid the allegations of bribery and overpricing in the national broadband network (NBN) deal, common sense dictates they should not conduct their own investigation on the matter.
It would be a pointless exercise because they have pre-judged the case against the son of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who divulged the supposed anomaly.
Besides, what information can they possibly obtain from those who will be invited to the hearing that the senators would not have already known once the ongoing Senate inquiry is concluded?
And there is no doubt the Senate will come out with a credible and honest report of the NBN controversy since neither the opposition nor the administration enjoy an overwhelming majority in the said body.
There is a suggestion for the Speaker to take a leave of absence and the chairpersons of the House committees to resign, which I suspect is the prelude of a determined initiative to oust de Venecia from his post.
But the only link of the Speaker in this imbroglio is his being the father of the gentleman who was quoted thus: “Neither I nor my foreign partners would accede to a sweetheart proposal that was riddled with graft, corruption, and the massive plunder of taxpayers’ money.”
Unless they can present hard and incontrovertible evidence that the Speaker has direct or indirect financial interest in his son’s business or has intervened on behalf of his son in any transaction with the government, the suggestion is best thrown out the window.
My advice to those who are now circling the wagons of the Speaker, so to speak, is to refrain from further fanning the fire of the controversy and instead to focus on the more important task of enacting laws.
I’m sure President Arroyo will not dare support any move to remove de Venecia from the speakership since this might trigger a re-alignment of forces that would allow the opposition to get the needed number of votes to impeach her.
