A useless legislative investigation
The kind of investigation participated eagerly by Senators Allan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV under which the construction of the Makati City Hall Building 2 which was erected by then City Mayor and now Vice President of the republic Jejomar Binay is in focus may appear to be a political demolition job. But it has a constitutional basis as it is buttressed by a long line of jurisprudence. This is simply called legislative investigation.
A Supreme Court ruling said that a legislative body cannot legislate wisely or effectively in the absence of information respecting the conditions which the legislation is intended to affect or change, and where the legislative body does not itself possess the requisite information, which is not infrequently true, recourse must be had to others who possess it. On this anchor, several personalities have been called to the investigation ostensibly to add or give information to Senator Cayetano et. al. for them to use in crafting a law.
The first requirement of a valid legislative investigation must be that it is in aid of legislation. Technically it is not necessary that every question that is asked of a person appearing before the hearing to be material to a proposed legislation because materiality is determined by its indirect relation to a proposed measure.
Apropos to this power, the members of Congress, senators and representatives, in the course of their legislative investigation, or any session for that matter, enjoys parliamentary immunity. For instance, in the current investigation of the Makati City Hall Building 2, the senators who denounce the vice president as having entered into corrupt transactions enjoy this privilege. They cannot be hailed to court for libel because also jurisprudence tells us of the purpose of this immunity being, per Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., among the country's authority in constitutional law quoting established rulings "to enable, encourage a representative of the republic to discharge his public trust with firmness and success for it is indispensably necessary that he should enjoy the fullest liberty of speech and that he should be protected from the resentment of everyone, how powerful (like the vice president), to whom the exercise liberty may occasion offense."
Of course we know all of these that I am talking about. Matters like legislative investigation in aid of legislation and parliamentary immunity are common knowledge among us. The Filipino people's preference to political discussion has brought this knowledge to us like the lines of our palm.
But I write on this topic today as a reminder to our politicians that they can devote more time to positive legislation than paving their way for electoral campaigns. I like to believe that Senator Cayetano and Vice President Binay can be opposing contenders in the presidential joust of 2016, but my God!, that's still a long way to go. We are paying them not to conduct premature campaigning which this legislative investigation is but a cover.
If senators Cayetano and Trillanes have, in the course of their inquiry, found the vice president guilty of some corrupt practice, they should now tell us the kind of bill needed to plug the loophole which Binay might have used while a mayor of Makati City. That is the meaning of in aid of legislation, to me. Let these senators show to us the draft of the bill they have drawn as a result of their investigation. Although if they are convinced of the commission of a criminal act by the then city mayor, they, on the side, recommend the prosecution of whoever might be responsible for corruption.
On the part of the vice president also, let him just prepare for the cases that might be filed against him. He opted not to appear before the investigation and that is his right. But giving press conferences in which he only uttered motherhood statements, he only stoked the fire of our imagination that placed him in an unbelievable stance.
In fine, enough is enough because out of their antics, my advocacy against political dynasties of which they, Senator Cayetano and Vice President Binay, are parts of, only gets strengthened. I personally have not liked them that I did not put them in my ballots the last time I voted in the election and by what they have shown in this "stage-acting", none of them will likely get my vote in 2016. End.
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