By Leonardo Micua

 

DESPITE the mammoth peace rally staged by the Iglesia Ni Cristo in support of the statement of PBBM that an impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte will only promote disunity and not give a single benefit to Filipinos, the  Quad Com of Congress is continuing its investigation into the alleged illegal disbursement of confidential funds in the Office of Vice President and in the Department of Education when VP Sara was its secretary.

Clarifying that its investigation in aid of legislation has nothing to do with impeachment, the very issue that launched the INC rally, Quad Com maintains that its continuing probe is only aimed at ferreting out the truth and possibly determining the officials who may have conspired to misappropriate the funds

In other words, Quad Com is not putting closure into its investigation on the matter of confidential funds till after it gets enough solid evidence to come up with a final report, which it can submit to the plenary and possibly to other agencies such as DOJ and NBI in support of a possible case of plunder against the persons responsible in misusing the confidential funds, whoever they are.

That, my friends, could be easily construed as a clear and simple congressional investigation in aid of prosecution, not in aid of legislation.

Meanwhile, the NBI has announced it has completed its investigation into the serious threat of VP Sara on the lives of PBBM, First Lady and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, with the respondent waiving her right to file counter-affidavits.

The result of the investigation is now up for review by the DOJ and if the latter finds probable cause, it may file a case against VP Sara.

Speakers in the INC rally emphasized that they respect the rule of law and pray that the rule of law will reign throughout the land.

However, when Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, a member of INC, expounded on this subject, he digressed in his speech and instead went on to attack his fellow congressmen who are members of Quad Com, and took to task the PBBM administration for being unable to control the prices of commodities.

Many said this disappointed INC members who traveled from afar to reach Luneta, and those who watched the peace rally on TV as they did not expect to hear any political speech in that supposed peace rally.

*          *          *          *

As we had earlier predicted in this column, the only thing that the opposition in the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod will do upon the return of three councilors from their 60-day preventive suspension is to filibuster. 

And that was exactly what they did during the past two sessions of the legislative body this month of January — endless filibustering directed at the five minority councilors, including Vice Mayor Bryan Kua. 

The opposition does not recognize that their house rules adopted on July 5, 2022 and supposedly amended on October 17, 2023, was superseded by a new one adopted by the five minority councilors who for 60 days outnumbered the remaining opposition councilors, 5-4. 

They claimed that this was a violation of the provision in the amended house rules that it takes 2/3 vote of the members to amend or repeal the same, and that the five councilors allied with Mayor Belen Fernandez did not have that number to change the house rules. 

But Councilor Michael Fernandez boldly maintained that in the original copy of the house rules, nowhere was a provision that says 2/3 vote is required to amend or repeal it. Such provision was only inserted by virtue of a joint written manifestation of the opposition councilors which they read on October 17, 2023, and not in the form of a resolution as required by law. 

A stalemate exists in the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod because of the misplaced belief of the opposition that the new house rules adopted by the new majority when the three opposition councilors were preventively suspended never existed. 

Now, they want to reinstate the old house rules and Councilor Librada Reyna as majority floor leader just by mere motions during a privilege speech of Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia.

Methinks the stalemate in the Sanggunian will go on unresolved till the May 2025 elections or till after a new set of 10 councilors shall have been elected.  

But the Belen Fernandez administration has nothing to worry about and is now sitting comfortably because the 2025 annual budget has already been passed.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments