BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – As chairman of the Committee on Justice in the House of the Representatives, Iloilo 5th District’s Rep. Niel “Jun-jun” Tupas Jr. vowed to be fair in handling the impeachment complaints filed against President Benigno Aquino III.
Aquino and Tupas are Liberal Party allies.
“All sides will be given the opportunity to speak…I will not protect the President. I will protect the integrity of the Committee on Justice and the House of Representatives,” Tupas said.
Impeachment complaints have been lodged against the President last week. One was filed by militant groups and civil society personalities, another by youth groups. These were all about the Disbursement Acceleration Program that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional.
Another impeachment complaint was over the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States.
All the complainants accused the President of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.
Tupas said the three separate complaints will be taken under one impeachment proceeding in line with a constitutional provision requiring only one impeachment process against a public official within the year.
Tupas refused to predict the possible result of the case.
However, he said that before the impeachment complaint is forwarded to the Senate for trial, there has to be strong evidence and strong public support.
Tupas said the case will pass through four voting stages until it reaches the plenary.
He said 54 members of the committee will decide based on sufficiency in form, sufficiency in substance, sufficiency of the ground, and probable cause.
The first three votings need only 20 percent of the 54 while the last needs absolute majority or 28 votes before it could pass the committee to the plenary, Tupas said.
For the case to pass the plenary and proceed to the Senate, it only needs one-third or 97 of 292 members./PN
