Palace: No hand in MJ’s ouster

Malacañang shrugged off yesterday charges by erstwhile Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez that the Palace was behind the move to oust him from the House of Representatives.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye sought to belie the suspicions aired by Jimenez in interviews with local media via long-distance telephone calls from his Miami residence, where he is under house arrest after he posted bail before the US federal courts.

Jimenez and his staff earlier said his removal from the House on the basis of his lack of residency in the district he represents was part of harassment from the Palace.

Jimenez’s chief of staff, Francis Ver, said in an earlier statement that the "obvious purpose of the House of Representative Electoral Tribunal (HRET) ruling is to deprive Congressman Jimenez of a venue from which he could expose corruption and abuses in government."

Ver said Jimenez had conducted exposes of resigned justice secretary Hernando Perez’s extortion and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo’s acceptance of monetary contributions for foundations Mr. Arroyo is involved in.

In his daily press briefing, Bunye said the Palace has no control or supervision over a constitutionally independent body like the HRET, which handed down its ruling unseating Jimenez Thursday.

"The HRET is the sole body which has the jurisdiction to hear cases involving qualifications and disqualifications of (House) members and this is composed of nine members, three of whom were Supreme Court Justices and three from the House of Representatives. They have the qualifications to render a decision," Bunye said. "So we defer to the decision of the HRET.

"At any rate," Bunye said, "Congressman Jimenez has the opportunity to file his motion for reconsideration."

Meanwhile, Jimenez has turned his business interests toward selling surveillance equipment that will help wives catch philandering husbands.

Jimenez, in an interview aired over radio station dzRH, said he expects to make a tidy profit from this endeavor in the Philippines, though he is uncertain when he will be able to return.

"I’m sure this will be a hit in the Philippines, for wives keeping watch over their philandering husbands," Jimenez said of his new venture involving the sale of a wristwatch fitted with a surveillance transmitter strapped to the subject’s wrist. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe