Premature exoneration of the President

Your editorial on the dismissal, by the House committee on justice, of the three impeachment complaints against President Aquino (“Cynical politics?,” 2/5/14) relied on errors of fact and argumentation, selective highlighting of tangential aspects of the hearing, and sweeping generalizations to undermine the case for holding the President accountable for his actions in relation to the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca).

The editorial regurgitates two arguments, deployed by the majority during the hearing, to claim that the Makabayan representatives endorsed “very weak complaints.” The argument that the complaints are “premature” because the Supreme Court has not ruled with finality, on both the DAP and Edca, was thrown out right away by the committee chair himself.

The other argument, that the allegations in the complaints do not rise to the level of “culpable violation” of the Constitution, runs counter to the very clear and stringent standard set by no less than the framers of the Constitution—that any willful, knowing, or intentional violation of the Constitution by an impeachable official is a culpable violation.

Doesn’t the allegation, made in the first two complaints that the President made use of P144 billion of the people’s money without congressional authorization, and committed prohibited cross-border transfers of savings outside of the executive branch, fall well within the standard set by the Constitutional Commission for “culpable violation of the Constitution”?

It is the members of the majority and their apologists who have relied upon “the broadest possible meaning” of culpable violation in order to justify the premature exoneration of the President.

Anyone familiar with the complaints would know that the complainants also invoked “betrayal of public trust” as another ground for impeachment.

Is it not betrayal of public trust for the President to usurp the congressional power of the purse in order to create a multibillion-peso pork barrel for himself, funding his own pet projects as well as those of favored politicians, with some P425 million reportedly having gone to Napoles NGOs? And all of this at the expense of needed social services and the unpaid benefits of government employees? Finally, is it not a betrayal of public trust for the President to grant the return of US military bases, allow access to territory anywhere in the Philippines to US forces upon their request, and surrender jurisdiction of Philippine courts through a mere executive agreement such as the

Edca?

To argue, along with the administration coalition in the House, that the President’s actions in relation to the DAP and Edca do not rise to the level of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust is to do a disservice to Filipinos, who certainly deserve a higher standard of public service from the highest official of the land. That would be the true triumph of cynical politics.

—REP. ANTONIO TINIO,

Party-List, ACT Teachers,

Makabayan Coalition