Friday, October 12, 2007 De Venecia inhibits self from Arroyo impeach raps
SPEAKER Jose de Venecia Jr. inhibited himself from the impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo, paving the way for the transmittal last night of the complaint to the House committee on justice.
De Venecia yesterday asked Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar to discharge the functions of the speaker “only for the purpose of properly disposing of the matter of the impeachment complaint.”
He said his sole purpose was to “avoid any implication of conflict of interest.”
Malacañang, in a statement, was quick to reject the endorsement of the latest impeachment complaint against the President to the committee on justice, which has 60 session days to determine whether the complaint is sufficient in form and substance.
The referral to the justice committee starts the one-year prohibition on the filing of another impeachment complaint against the President.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye branded the third complaint in three successive years as a “distraction that the President can and will ignore.”
“She has a nation to govern and there are more important matters which she has to attend,” Bunye said in a statement.
De Venecia categorically stated that Malacañang has no influence on his strength as a leader when asked about his leverage in preventing allies of Arroyo from ousting him as Speaker as one-year ban on the filing of an impeachment complaint against the President starts.
“I am prepared to meet all the threats to my position,” said de Venecia in a press conference as he clarified that he will inhibit in the entire impeachment proceeding against the President.
“Our strength is not based on the will of the President and Malacañang.”
Speculation that de Venecia filed a leave of absence and that del Mar will take over quickly spread at the Batasang Pambansa complex yesterday afternoon.
But del Mar denied the talks, which he said also took him by surprise.
In a phone interview last night, del Mar said de Venecia simply inhibited himself from participating in any discussion on the impeachment complaint against the President.
Del Mar faxed Sun. Star Cebu a copy of the letter he received from de Venecia yesterday, where he asked the deputy speaker to take over in yesterday’s session.
“Considering that the complainant, Attorney Roberto Raphael Pulido, has also accused me of unethical practice before the House ethics committee and the ombudsman, I believe I should have no participation whatsoever in the disposal of this complaint,” de Venecia told del Mar in the letter.
Del Mar said he referred the complaint to the committee on rules for inclusion in the order of business for yesterday’s session. The task, he said, was simply ministerial and procedural.
The complaint was then referred to the committee on justice.
Yesterday morning, some 150 administration allies in the House joined the President for breakfast at Malacañang, which de Venecia nearly missed.
It was not a loyalty check, del Mar said, but just a social function where the President thanked the legislators for their hard work in Congress.
Microphones were set up in the hall but the President did not address her guests. The impeachment complaint was also not discusses, del Mar said.
“It was the President’s way of expressing her gratitude to the coalition members for keeping very long hours in Congress, for working on the 2008 budget and for doing our job,” he said of the breakfast gathering.
De Venecia arrived as everybody started leaving.
Aside from the congressmen, Arroyo also met yesterday afternoon with local officials’ leagues in the country through the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap).
Ulap is the umbrella organization of the league of town mayors, city mayors, councilors and governors.
The League of Provinces of the Philippines yesterday passed a resolution reiterating its support for Arroyo.
LPP President Leo Ocampo president the resolution to Arroyo when she arrived in the gathering, which was followed by a joint Cabinet-Ulap-RDC meeting.
The Palace-de Venecia showdown is an offshoot of the allegation of the Speaker’s son Jose “Joey” de Venecia III that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo pointed a finger at his face in telling him to back off from the national broadband deal (NBN) project.
The young de Venecia is co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings Inc., the only company that had offered to undertake the NBN through a build-operate-transfer scheme which the Speaker stressed was the best mode for the project.
Lawyer Roel Pulido filed last Oct. 5 the impeachment complaint against the President for betrayal of public trust in relation to the cancelled $329-million NBN deal with China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications (ZTE) Corp.
The comlaint was later endorsed by neophyte Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis, who denies membership with the administration Kampi party.
The minority bloc has said the Pulido complaint is obviously meant to preempt a real complaint which could emanate from de Venecia’s camp since Article 10, Section 3 of the Constitution states that no impeachment proceeding shall be initiated against the same official for more than once within a period of one year.
Last Tuesday, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran identified Francis Ver, deputy secretary general of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), as the Malacañang operator who allegedly offered him P2 million in exchange for endorsing the complaint.
Ver was the former chief of staff of former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Kampi chairman, when the latter was still the representative of Antipolo City.
Beltran said his colleagues should rally behind calls to investigate the charges of Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia that Puno was behind the filing of the alleged fake impeachment complaint against Arroyo.(Sunnex)/LCR/With JPM)
