Explanation of Vote

The Search for Truth Will Continue

By: Rep. Lorenzo R. Tanada III

The second attempt to find Truth thru the Constitutional process is dead. The ruling majority in the Lower House guaranteed this even before the impeachment complaints were filed.

As a member of the House majority, I have long stood for principles over personalities and political parties. I believe that the impeachment process does not automatically brand the accused as guilty. On the contrary, it can be used to prove innocence.

In fact, impeachment is a valid means of arriving at the truth. Those who hide the truth would be able to find every reason to prevent it from coming out. On the other hand, those who seek the truth have nothing but their zeal and courage to look for it even if the truth is not to their liking.

Mr. Speaker, is the second impeachment complaint sufficient in substance?

The rule clearly states that “the requirement of substance is met if there is a recital of facts constituting the offense charged and determination of the jurisdiction of the Committee.

Kung ganito kapayak o kasimple ang hinihingi ng batas, bakit hinihingi ng Komite ang pagkakaroon ng higit pa dito o “concise statement of ultimate facts constituting the offense charged” para masabing sapat sa sustansya ang complaint. Simple lang ang batas pero sa interpretasyon ng Komite ay halatang gusto pang pahirapan ng husto ang complainants, upang hindi na talaga ito bigyan pa ng pagkakataon sa Kongresong ito.

Whether the recital of facts have “inuendos” and “generalizations”, still, the complaint had stated clearly the facts constituting the offense being charged to the President.

It is the Senate that will determine the ultimate facts based on the evidence presented before it. Ang ating tungkulin lamang dito sa Kongreso ay hanapin kung sapat ba sa porma, sapat ba sustansya at mayroong katwiran ang akusasyon.

Until now, Mr. Speaker I firmly believe that the second impeachment complaint is sufficient in substance.

Mr. Speaker,

However, today’s burial of the impeachment process in the light of so many unanswered questions critical to our nations wellbeing forebodes the worst is yet to come.

1. The House majority stated that the second impeachment complaint was dead long before it even arrived here at the Lower House. The leaders of the House majority guaranteed this in their public statements as they earlier attempted to prove the futility and therefore discourage the filing of the impeachment complaints.

For after all, inspite of “legal posturing” and “profound statements” to the contrary, the House majority once again helped expose and prove by their very actions that the impeachment process is simple politics and a numbers game as everyone already knows by now.

With this in mind, it is best to drop all pretenses of asserting legal procedures or that the complaints lack substance, to defend the House majority’s actions or to assail the oppositions’ supposed mistakes, as this posturing only insults the intelligence of the Filipino people.

Mr. Speaker,

2. There are those who trumpet that the filing of the second impeachment complaint was a waste of time, as some, specially in the House majority, want to portray it. On the contrary, it achieved what was supposed to achieve – it further opened the eyes of the people to the limits and waste of a Congress dominated by parochial narrowmindedness.

Then there are also those pro-cha-cha advocates who punch at air by trying to use what happened to the impeachment complaints to justify their cause. But what they are only really proving is that no amount of cha cha dancing can save the Philippines from crisis.

So, after today’s impeachment burial, what happens next, Mr. Speaker?

For those eagerly seeking to escape the harsh light of public scrutiny, don’t be surprised if “deliberate forgetfulness” or “enforced amnesia” will be peddled to the people under the guise of “moving on” and “tackling other important issues”.

Already, Malacañang is trumpeting “Reconciliation” as if nothing ever happened or is happening. But without truth and justice, reconciliation is hollow, farcical and cheap political gimickry.

And what about the people, Mr. Speaker?

3. Contraposed to the House majority’s declaration of death to the impeachment complaints and the certain attempts of the powers-that-be to bury the issue even before the last spade of earth has been thrown over the grave of the impeachment complaint, to the Filipino people, the attempt to find the truth and render justice will be very much alive and fresh in their minds in their everyday struggles.

With every increase in the prices of goods and services while wages and salaries continue to be depressed, the people will remember.

With every calamity that happens, natural or manmade, such as from continued forest denudation, more Guimaras and other toxic spills, unrestricted mining, further marine devastations, and other foreign exploitation of our resources, the people will remember.

With every case of graft and corruption, solved or unsolved, the people will remember.

With every tragic death of a government critic or human rights advocate or even due to billion peso total wars or all-out wars and terror laws, the people will remember.

Mr. Speaker,

4. The Filipino people, officially deprived of the impeachment process, as a Consitutional means, are now left with no other choice but to explore the remaining avenues left to them in seeking truth and attaining justice. And the people “acting directly to impose their sovereign will” to achieve change is very much consitutional, as found by the Supreme Court.

Isinasandal sa pader ng Malacanang at ng Kongresong ito ang taumbayan sa pagpatay nila sa impeachment na ito. They are leaving the people little or no choice.

Sayang Mr. Speaker, nakakalungkot lamang at ito ang iniiwang legacy ng Kongresong ito—na ang PILIPIT AY PILIT NA ITINUTUWID.

Ang tanong ng taumbayan ngayon ay: nasagot na ba ang mga paratang sa ating pangulo? Nahanap na ba talaga natin ang katotohanan para tumahimik ng mamamayan at maaari na tayong magpatuloy o mag-“move on” ayon sa ating pangulo.

One thing for sure . . . ang mga ginagawa ngayon ng so-called majority ni Arroyo ay naggagarantiya na nananatili sa kaisipan ng taumbayan at maitatala sa kasaysayan na MAY INIIWASAN, MAY PINAGTATAKPAN at MAY ITINATAGO sa taumbayan ang gobyernong ito.

Mr. Speaker, I vote NO to the Committee Report