i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
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C H A R T E R C H A N G E<br />
driven not so much by narrow<br />
and short-term interests but the<br />
bigger, longer-term interests of<br />
the nation?<br />
The burden now is on Congress.<br />
Whatever the result of the<br />
impeachment, the key question<br />
<strong>for</strong> both Houses is whether they<br />
can rise above partisan and pecuniary<br />
interests and the temptation<br />
to play up to the gallery in<br />
order resolve the issues linked<br />
to alleged presidential wrongdoing<br />
in a manner acceptable<br />
to the majority of the people.<br />
Otherwise, this latest episode<br />
could result, if not in an outburst<br />
of people power, then with the<br />
already tattered credibility of<br />
Congress in shriveled shreds.<br />
Without a credible impeachment<br />
process, other sectors—the<br />
military, the Catholic Church,<br />
and the middle class—may once<br />
again be <strong>for</strong>ced to resolve the<br />
impasse through extraconstitutional<br />
means. More than the<br />
fate of the presidency, there<strong>for</strong>e,<br />
what is at stake in the current<br />
crisis is the credibility—and the<br />
future—of democratic institutions,<br />
and of democracy itself.<br />
DAMAGED CONGRESS<br />
The problem begins with Congress.<br />
Since the fall of Marcos<br />
in 1986, the history of that body<br />
has been far from stellar. Instead,<br />
the legislature has been a<br />
disappointment on many counts,<br />
including in its ability to hold<br />
other institutions to account.<br />
Indeed, the outcomes of previous<br />
impeachment processes<br />
initiated by the House raise serious<br />
doubts about congressional<br />
independence and efficacy.<br />
In 2002, the compromised<br />
Ombudsman Aniano Desierto<br />
was let off the hook twice by<br />
the House justice committee. The<br />
first time involved a complaint<br />
alleging that Desierto received a<br />
bagful of cash from a banker and<br />
real-estate developer who had a<br />
pending case in his office. The<br />
businessman wrote the justice<br />
committee denying the charge.<br />
The committee promptly threw<br />
out the complaint as “sufficient<br />
in <strong>for</strong>m but not in substance”<br />
and refused to take in any more<br />
evidence from the complainants.<br />
The second complaint, alleging<br />
that the Ombudsman bungled<br />
its investigation of the multimillion-peso<br />
tax credit scam, was<br />
dismissed on the ground that no<br />
complaint could be filed against<br />
an official within the same year.<br />
Thanks once more to the<br />
justice committee, Commission<br />
on Elections commissioner<br />
Luzviminda Tancangco, whose<br />
many lapses are blamed <strong>for</strong><br />
the ill-starred modernization of<br />
elections, also survived impeachment<br />
in 2002, despite compelling<br />
evidence showing she approved<br />
an overpriced and questionable<br />
voter-registration contract.<br />
In both these cases, the<br />
House was judged by civil-society<br />
groups and the media as acting<br />
in a scandalously self-serving<br />
way. It was accused of clearing<br />
powerful officials who were well<br />
connected to the leadership of<br />
the legislature. The acquittals<br />
also got legislators into the good<br />
graces of powerful executive<br />
officials, one of them charged<br />
with investigating graft cases<br />
(of which congressmen have<br />
many); the other, with running<br />
and adjudicating elections (in<br />
which legislators regularly and<br />
enthusiastically take part).<br />
Chief Justice Hilario Davide<br />
Jr., meanwhile, was publicly seen<br />
as the victim of a congressional<br />
lynch mob that put together<br />
a questionable impeachment<br />
complaint in 2003, accusing him<br />
of anomalies in the use of the<br />
Judiciary Development Fund.<br />
The charges against Davide were<br />
viewed not so much as part of<br />
an earnest desire to hold the<br />
highest court to account, but as<br />
an attempt of the faction aligned<br />
with beer magnate Eduardo Cojuangco<br />
Jr. to pressure the high<br />
tribunal to rule in Cojuangco’s<br />
favor in the long-running coconut<br />
levy cases.<br />
Earlier in 2003, Davide and<br />
seven other justices had already<br />
been the subject of an<br />
impeachment complaint, which<br />
questioned the constitutionality<br />
of their action in swearing in<br />
Arroyo as president in the heat<br />
of Edsa 2. That complaint was<br />
dismissed by the justice committee.<br />
Within weeks, the committee<br />
began hearing another<br />
impeachment complaint against<br />
Davide, even if it was the second<br />
filed against the chief magistrate<br />
in the same year.<br />
The impeachment was allowed<br />
to prosper, with the tacit<br />
approval of House Speaker Jose<br />
de Venecia. In just over a week,<br />
the complaint already had over<br />
80 signatures, more than enough<br />
to <strong>for</strong>ward it to the Senate <strong>for</strong><br />
an impeachment trial. President<br />
Arroyo kept mum on the issue<br />
<strong>for</strong> some time; only after protests<br />
from business, Church, and civil<br />
society groups, did she speak<br />
out, urging the House to drop<br />
the complaint and to instead<br />
<strong>for</strong>m a body to investigate<br />
the charges. The impasse was<br />
broken by the Supreme Court,<br />
which ruled the complaint unconstitutional<br />
because of the<br />
one-year prohibition. The House<br />
soon followed with a resolution<br />
to dismiss the impeachment<br />
complaint. The resolution was<br />
signed by the majority of congressmen<br />
led by de Venecia,<br />
who sensed that public opinion<br />
was turning against Congress.<br />
Then of course there was<br />
Estrada’s aborted impeachment<br />
trial in 2001, when public outrage<br />
over what it deemed was<br />
the Senate’s partiality toward<br />
the then president spilled out<br />
into the streets and catalyzed<br />
People Power 2. This time, the<br />
blame was heaped on the Senate,<br />
rather than on the House.<br />
ARE HER DAYS NUMBERED?<br />
Anti-Arroyo protesters say<br />
the president has to go or<br />
she will be ousted.<br />
Several pro-Estrada senators<br />
were accused of receiving payoffs<br />
in the tens of millions of<br />
pesos to ensure the president’s<br />
acquittal.<br />
Given all these, the skepticism<br />
about Congress’ capacity<br />
to carry out an impeachment<br />
process that will produce a just<br />
result is understandable. The<br />
track record is simply not there.<br />
The first obstacle Congress faces<br />
is its own past.<br />
A STRING OF FAILURES<br />
The legislature’s other failures<br />
are also to blame. Congress<br />
fails in terms of efficiency: the<br />
12 th Congress, which ended its<br />
term in 2004, passed all of four<br />
laws and could not even pass<br />
the national budget, <strong>for</strong>cing it<br />
to reenact the old one. Most<br />
days, there isn’t even a quorum<br />
in the House, making it difficult<br />
to deliberate on laws and other<br />
pending business. The slow burn<br />
of the impeachment complaint in<br />
the House committee of justice<br />
is not unusual: the normal pace<br />
of Congress is glacial.<br />
Congress also fails in terms of<br />
costs: Congress gets more expensive<br />
every year, even as it passes<br />
fewer laws. Already, Economic<br />
Planning Secretary Romulo Neri<br />
says that the stupendous sum of<br />
P6.4 billion may be set aside <strong>for</strong><br />
the expenses of Congress if it is<br />
convened as a constituent body<br />
to amend the constitution.<br />
More importantly, Congress<br />
fails in terms of representation.<br />
If there needs to be proof that<br />
the <strong>Philippine</strong>s is an oligarchy,<br />
one only has to look at the<br />
composition of the legislature.<br />
As the PCIJ book The Rulemakers:<br />
How the Wealthy and<br />
Well-Born Dominate Congress<br />
shows, nearly all the members<br />
of both Houses are millionaires;<br />
most are also part of political<br />
families whose members have<br />
held public office <strong>for</strong> two or<br />
more generations. Through the<br />
years, legislators have tended<br />
to stay longer in office, despite<br />
term limits, making it difficult <strong>for</strong><br />
new entrants, especially those<br />
who do not come from political<br />
families, to get into Congress.<br />
In the House, two of every<br />
three congressmen are part of<br />
political clans. In the Senate,<br />
the average assets of members<br />
is growing every term, with an<br />
increase by P27 million between<br />
1998, when the 11 th Senate assumed<br />
power, and 2001, when<br />
the 12 th Senate took over.<br />
Congress likewise fails in terms<br />
of accountability: accounting and<br />
auditing rules are honored more<br />
in the breach in both Houses,<br />
as shown in The Rulemakers.<br />
Moreover, through the years,<br />
PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM<br />
I REPORT<br />
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