House impeaches Davide

After being considered an icon for presiding over the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada at the Senate, Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. may soon find himself on trial on the same charges of corruption and misuse of public funds.

Davide was effectively impeached yesterday by the House of Representatives after 87 out of the 226 congressmen crossed party lines in signing an impeachment complaint for his alleged misuse of P4 billion in Judicial Development Funds (JDF).

Davide will thus suffer the ignominy of becoming the second public official to be impeached by the House after Estrada was voted out by congressmen on Nov. 13, 2000.

The complaint against Davide alleged that he ordered the use of the cost-of-living allowance of the 25,000-member judiciary for the purchase of luxury cars, vacation homes and office furnishings of the Supreme Court justices.

"This complaint seeks to hold Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr., as administrator of the Judiciary Development Fund, responsible for multiple acts of malfeasance, breach of public trust and thoughtless extravagance, in the disbursement and use of the Judiciary Development Fund," the complaint said.

Under House rules, a constitutional official such as Davide is considered impeached when a verified complaint is endorsed or sponsored by at least one-third, or 75, of the 226-member chamber.

If the required number is reached, the complaint will be elevated to the Senate for trial with House members acting as prosecutors.

"This is a purely legal issue, we are not asking for his (Davide) blood," said Tarlac Rep. Gilberto Teodoro, one of the two complainants. "No one is above the law."

The other complainant, Camarines Sur Rep. Felix William Fuentebella, said the impeachment complaint against Davide "is for justices, judges and other court employees who do not get their share of the JDF."

The signatories came from different political parties which included the administration Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and the opposition Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).

Teodoro, of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), said they aim to gather more signatures to counter moves by other legislators to convince others to withdraw their signatures. Manila Rep. Ernesto Nieva of Lakas reportedly withdrew his signature later in the day.

Teodoro claimed the impeachment complaint is gaining more ground than the required number of signatures.

With the number of signatures swelling, Teodoro said the House leadership has no recourse but to immediately transmit the complaint to the Senate.

House Majority Leader and chairman of the committee on rules, Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr., said the House has three days to transmit the complaint to the Senate.

He explained the complaint should be verified first and reviewed by House Secretary General Roberto Nazareno who will then refer it to the committee on rules to include in the plenary’s order of business.

The procedure differs from the earlier case of Estrada in 2000 when the impeachment complaint against him did not pass the committee on rules and the House secretary general but went straight for endorsement of then Speaker Manuel Villar Jr., now a senator.

The impeachment trial, then presided by Davide, was not concluded after an impasse developed on Jan. 17, 2000 over the opening of the controversial second envelope as part of the evidence of the prosecution against the former president.

For his part, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. admitted he has no control over the complaint against Davide.

"This one (impeachment complaint against Davide) I have absolutely no control of. It goes straight to the Senate," he said.

But De Venecia stressed the political consequences of the move to impeach Davide.

"This is another major political crisis that could lead to another constitutional crisis... This could affect the stability of the exchange rate," De Venecia told the Makati Business Club yesterday.

De Venecia said it would now be up for the Senate leadership to tackle the impeachment complaint against Davide.

"I hope they (Senate) can manage it well and the Senate would treat it just like a normal case... without exacerbating national conditions. I hope that when they discuss the impeachment complaint, it would not disturb the national conditions. It could create a political crisis if it is not managed well," he said.

A group of legislators, particularly the Liberal Party contingent, warned the impeachment process against Davide would result in a constitutional crisis and worsen the volatile political situation in the country.

Bataan Rep. Florencio Abad and Tarlac Rep. Benigno Aquino III said Davide can dismiss the complaint as unconstitutional.

"There is a larger picture in this issue, we cannot be purely legalistic and technical in this impeachment," Abad said.

"We are impeaching the Chief Justice, and everybody knows the implications of this on the already volatile political situation, we must not add to this," he said.

Gonzalez, for his part, said Davide has no recourse but to face trial at the Senate.

"If he does not recognize our power (to impeach) then he has no business staying a second longer from his post," he said.

Rallying Point

Davide has himself to blame for the mess, the congressmen said.

Teodoro and Fuentebella said Davide refused to cooperate with the House inquiry over the alleged misuse of the JDF.

"It is unfortunate that it has come to this," said the chairman of the House committee on justice, Eastern Samar Rep. Marcelino Libanan.

Libanan said the required number of signatures could not have materialized had Davide cooperated with the panel.

Fuentebella said the impeachment move started as a simple complaint when a group of court employees asked him to help them include some workers in the coverage of the proposed pay increase for members of the judiciary.

Fuentebella said it would not be easy but he pointed out that the JDF can be tapped to fund additional allowances.

But the court employees claimed the JDF is getting smaller despite the increases in legal and court fees.

The JDF was created by Presidential Decree 1949 by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1984 that establishes a fund of which 80 percent will be allocated for cost of living allowances (COLA) of court employees and 20 percent for equipment and facilities.

Libanan said they decided to look into the JDF in their hearings last May but to their surprise, Davide refused to cooperate with the House panel after being summoned to appear.

The hearings were resumed last August with Supreme Court administrator Presbitero Velasco appearing before the panel.

According to Fuentebella, Velasco "threatened" the congressmen when he issued a statement pointing out that some employees at the House might use a similar complaint against the House leadership as regards to expenditures and disbursements.

"So we just want to point out the situation, Your Honor, so that the committee may be made aware of the possible suit in the future also and the Supreme Court, of course, has the judicial power under the Constitution," Velasco told the congressmen.

Teodoro added Davide issued a memorandum to Supreme Court employees not to provide any information to the committee.

Davide reportedly sent pamphlets reminding the congressmen of the separation of powers between the judiciary and legislative branches of the government.

"We have been very respectful to him (Davide), but he remained uncooperative," Fuentebella added.

Both Teodoro and Fuentebella accused Davide of misusing the JDF amounting to P762,566,241.57.

The charges include the underpayment of COLA (P527,867,192.90), the use of JDF funds to renovate the Supreme Court session hall (P64,169, 810), construction and renovation of Baguio vacation homes of the justices (P34,679,491.80), construction of the SC and Court of Appeals (CA) multi-purpose building (P99, 884746.87), purchase of luxury cars and other vehicles, subsidizing for the printing press of the CA.

"The acts committed by (Davide), as alleged in the complaint, are grave," Teodoro and Fuentebella said in a statement.

"The amounts are staggering. This complaint invokes the power of Congress to impeach justices of the Supreme Court, under the principle of checks and balances that underlines of system of government."

Both congressmen said their complaint was based on documents obtained from the Supreme Court and the Commission on Audit (COA).

They said the COA also found irregularities in the disbursement of the JDF during a recent audit. - with reports from Evelyn Macairan, AFP. Reuters