JDV insists on presiding over Abalos impeachment

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. stood pat yesterday on his decision to preside over the impeachment proceedings against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos.

De Venecia insisted that he will remain neutral amid calls for him to inhibit himself in the impeachment proceedings stemming from the testimony of his son implicating Abalos in the alleged bribery attempt over the government’s national broadband network (NBN) contract.

He said the over 200 members of the House of Representatives will decide based on their “conscience” whether to impeach Abalos based on a complaint filed by Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico.

“My recommendation is that there should be no party vote and no coalition vote. But there is a conscience vote – we leave it to the individual members to vote their conscience,” De Venecia said in a statement.

De Venecia said he “will be guided by the light of reason and by the lamp of conscience” when the time comes for him to act on the impeachment complaint.

As Speaker, De Venecia has 10 session days to decide whether to send the impeachment complaint to the House committees on rules and justice to deliberate on its form and substance.

The decision to cast the “conscience vote” came during a meeting with senior House leaders at the Speaker’s office yesterday.

De Venecia, for himself, vowed to observe fair play in handling the impeachment complaint against Abalos, who has been implicated by his son, Jose de Venecia III, co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), the firm which lost the NBN contract to China’s ZTE Corp.

The impeachment complaint stemmed from the statements of the younger De Venecia in the Senate claiming Abalos had tried to bribe him $10 million to allow ZTE to bag the NBN contract. Abalos has denied the allegation.

The Speaker said he will do his ministerial duty to refer the impeachment complaint to the House justice committee this week.

“I will exercise my ministerial duty as mandated by the law,” he said.

De Venecia said he is also considering the option of designating one of the five Deputy Speakers to do the ministerial duty of referring the impeachment complaint to the proper committee to placate critics.

“To avoid suspicion that I’m acting hastily because the case involves an official named by my son, I’m considering the option of having one of the Deputy Speakers to refer the complaint to the proper committee,” he said.

The justice committee, headed by Quezon City Rep. Mat Defensor, will be tasked to determine whether the impeachment complaint is sufficient in form and substance before it can be reported out to the plenary for deliberation of the entire House membership.

Defensor said his committee will weigh all the evidence if there are culpable violations of the Constitution. – With Eva Visperas