House justice panel approves report dismissing impeachment raps vs Comelec chairman

October 5, 2017

The House committee on justice approved its report Thursday recommending to the plenary to dismiss the impeachment complaint against Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bautista.

At least 98 votes or one-third of the 293 lawmakers are needed in the plenary to overturn the decision of the panel chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali.

In the early part of the hearing, the panel voted 19-2 to approve the report. It was reconsidered later to reach 26 -2 in the second voting because the first voting did not reach majority of the total 50 panel lawmaker-members.

Last September 20, the committee also voted 26-2 dismissing the impeachment complaint for being insufficient in form after complainants used a defective verification form.

“Now be it resolved by the House of Representatives to dismiss the impeachment complaint filed by Jacinto Paras and Ferdinand Topacio against Andres Bautista for the reason that it is insufficient in form due to its defective verification,” the report said.

Patricia Bautista, wife of the poll body’s chief and her lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, expressed belief that the plenary may still reverse the panel decision to junk the Bautista impeachment complaint.

Bautista was accused of betrayal of public trust and culpable violations of the Constitution for allegedly not declaring his true wealth in his Statement of Assets and Liabilities Networth (SALN) –allegedly amounting to at least ₱1 billion, as against his declared assets of ₱241. 8 million – as well as for alleged graft and corruption for receiving commissions from Divina Law Offices, the legal counsel of Venezuelan election technology supplier Smartmatic. DMS