Nothing personal

Like the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, a formal impeachment complaint was finally filed before the House of Representatives last Wednesday against Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bautista. Ironically, it was not the estranged wife of the Comelec chief, Patricia “Tish” Paz Bautista who lodged the complaint after she earlier blew the whistle against her husband’s alleged impeachable acts.

It was Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, a former classmate of Bautista at the Ateneo de Manila University College of Law who got into motion the impeachment proceedings against him. Topacio joined former Congressman Jacinto Paras in a joint impeachment complaint they swore under oath before the office of the House secretary-general.

Topacio was my guest in Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Cafe Adriatico in Malate, Manila a few hours before he filed the impeachment complaint at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City. 

At the weekly breakfast forum, Topacio announced he joined this impeachment complaint with a bit of pain in his heart because Bautista happened to be his former classmate at the Ateneo College of Law, batch 1990.

Bautista was their class valedictorian, he recalled. Topacio though consoles himself that both of them did not place at the Top Ten during the Bar examinations. But one of their female classmates whom they both eyed fondly placed third. Topacio could only wish Bautista had wooed and married this female classmate instead. Topacio said the Comelec chief could have married a “less feisty” wife like Tish.

Among the two articles of impeachment, Topacio disclosed, were Bautista's alleged un-explained wealth based from the allegations of Bautista’s estranged wife. Topacio added alleged culpable violations of the Constitution by Bautista in his submission of his annual Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) as against multi-million pesos of unreported deposits at Luzon Development Bank and possible money-laundering acts.

Being a member and the head no less of the seven-man Comelec, Bautista is among officials of constitutional bodies who could be removed from office through impeachment proceedings. According to Topacio, their formal complaint has enumerated two other articles of impeachment on Bautista’s alleged betrayal of public trust.

The first two articles of impeachment, he said, pertains to the so-called “Come-leaks” or the hacking of the Comelec computer that allegedly compromised the voters’ information. As the head of the Comelec, Topacio accused Bautista of alleged failure to protect the voters’ information that were hacked based from the findings of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) of this cyber crime incident.

The NPC primarily charged Bautista for these “Come-leaks” in criminal information they filed at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in January this year. But the DOJ did not act on it, citing the fact that the Comelec chairman enjoys immunity from suit but could only be charged and removed through impeachment process.

Likewise, Topacio accused Bautista of patently covering up for Smartmatic’s changing of the “script” of the transparency server of quick count machine used by the Parish-Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), a Comelec-designated official watchdog during the May, 2016 elections.

Topacio bewailed that this incident led to suspicions of possible rigged elections in favor of Liberal Party (LP) candidates supported by the administration of former President Benigno “Noy”Aquino III. He particularly lashed at Bautista’s denigrating the changing of script by Smartmatic as nothing but “cosmetic change” that did not change nor affected the results of the elections, especially on the turnout of the presidential and vice presidential race.

Three Comelec officials and three Smartmatic executives were, however, later recommended for criminal prosecution in court. The DOJ reversed the ruling by the Manila Prosecutor’s Office that previously cleared all the accused. The DOJ also did not include Bautista in this case, owing to his immunity from criminal suit as an impeachable official of the country.

The case stemmed from the complaint of former Abakada Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz, a known political ally of ex-Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in last year’s VP elections that was won by LP bet, former Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.

The impeachment case against the Comelec chairman hurdled its first challenge. Three incumbent House members agreed to endorse it. They were, namely, Reps.Gwen Garcia of Cebu (Lakas) and Rep. Abraham Tolentino (PDP-Laban) of Cavite along with Kabayan party list Rep. Harry Roque.

This paved the way for it being referred to the House committee on justice. It will, in turn, conduct public hearings to determine if the impeachment complaint would meet the basic requirements of form and substance for it to go to the next stage.

While the impeachment proceedings against the Comelec chief started to grind already, two other separate impeachment cases against Vice President Robredo and Supreme Court chief justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, are still waiting for endorsers.

To date, only the impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte reached this stage at the House committee on justice since this was filed by an incumbent House member, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano who was also its endorser to their body. Alejano accused President Duterte of amassing P2-billion in unexplained wealth and held him responsible for the killings of drug suspects under his administration and allegedly having failed to defend the country’s sovereign rights and territorial claims for supposedly having allowed Chinese ships in the resource-rich Benham Rise.

The pro-administration allies eventually threw out  the impeachment case against the President for lack of substance, foremost of which was lack of “personal knowledge” by Alejano of alleged impeachable offenses.

Naturally, I asked the same question to Topacio if he has “personal knowledge” to substantiate his charges against the Comelec chairman. “Walang personalan, trabaho lang,” Topacio wisecracked.

After appearing together at the House budget hearing of the Comelec, six fellow Comelec commissioners asked Bautista to either go on leave or resign for his own sake and for the poll body as well. They went behind Bautista’s back to publicly ask this in a full-blown conference yesterday.

That’s something not personal at all. Just hazards of the job.