Congress in Catch 22 situation

APALISOK

It was supposed to be a process that would just go through the motions given the current administration’s grip on the majority, but when the House committee on justice tackled the impeachment complaint filed by Magdalo Partylist Rep. Gary Alejano against President Rodrigo Duterte, something happened that prompted the panel to go on a closed-door session, hardly the scenario expected of an impeachment complaint marked for the trash bin.

Earlier, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas (PDP Laban, Ilocos Norte) pressed Alejano about his personal knowledge on the allegations heaped against the President, from his alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings, his family’s alleged unexplained wealth, and his involvement in the Davao Death Squad allegedly behind the 1,400 killings during Duterte’s term as Davao City Mayor.

Because the verification on the complaint stated, “I/We hereby confirm and affirm that the material allegations are correct of my/our own personal knowledge and as culled from authentic records,” Cong. Fariñas examined the Partylist lawmaker if he did have any personal knowledge of the 1,400 individuals killed in Davao City. Alejano conceded he did not personally see the murder but argued that he based his accusations against the President on “authentic records”.

Fariñas, considered a legal luminary (finished his law degree in Ateneo in 1978 and topped the bar the following year), was in his elements when he zeroed in on the supposed weakness of the complaint, which is the lack of a personal knowledge by the complainant on the accusations brought against the President.

According to the majority leader, the purpose of verification “is to secure an assurance from the complainant that allegations are true and correct, not speculative.” But Alejano insisted that his best evidence against the President are his own statements on the drug war and the country’s ties to China.
For opposition lawmaker Edcel Lagman, there are only two things to exact from the process of verification: whether there is a verified complaint and has the complainant sworn to the complaint. Since Rep. Alejano was present to take it all from the President’s allies, Lagman asserted the impeachment complaint stands on good ground.

As administration allies aired opinions in support of Farinas’ views, House Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia (PDP Laban, 3rd district Cebu) raised an important point that had colleagues view the complaint from another perspective and immediately placed the House in a classic Catch 22 situation.

The main issue in so far as the House majority is concerned is to finish off the complaint so as to enable Congress to focus on its main function which is supposed to be legislation, according to Garcia.

The unstated position is simple. Congress cannot be an instrument of opposition forces by allowing the complaint to take a life of its own. The lawmaker from Cebu then asked House committee on justice chairman Reynaldo Umali whether throwing out the complaint will not mean it will come back in amended form after one year.

In other words, dismissing the complaint is not as easy or even expedient as it looked. Throw it out and you virtually open the door for it to come back in amended form, and we’d be back to square one, Garcia was in effect saying. The only way is to go through the process and hear out the complainant, but that is unthinkable in a chamber dominated by the administration. That was the reason why Umali called for an executive session.

I write this as the House committee has yet to come out with a resolution, but I think that either way, Congress cannot compromise its mandate as the sole body vested by the Constitution with the power to impeach public officials.