The House Committee on Justice on Wednesday junked the impeachment complaint against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres D. Bautista due to insufficiency in form.
Voting 26-2, Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali of the Second District of Oriental Mindoro, the panel chairman, declared as insufficient in form the impeachment complaint filed by former Rep. Jacinto V. Paras of the First District of Negros Oriental and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.
“[We] find it insufficient in form; the complaint is deemed dismissed,” Umali said.
The complaint was endorsed by Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia, Party-list Rep. Harry L. Roque Jr. of Kabayan and Rep. Abraham Tolentino of the Seventh District of Cavite. A complaint filed by any citizen should get the endorsement of a representative before it will be transmitted to the House Committee on Justice.
Before declaring the complaint as insufficient in form, the members of the committee also rejected the motion of Roque to accept a substitute verification of the complaint to correct the errors in the complaint filed by Paras and Topacio in August.
Deputy Majority Leader Juan Pablo Bondoc said during the hearing of the impeachment complaint against President Duterte, the committee decided it would be the last time the lower chamber would allow liberty for errors.
But Roque said the substitution is not prohibited under the rule of the lower chamber.
Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of the First District of Albay, however, said “just because the amendment is not prohibited, it must be allowed”.
Meanwhile, Majority Leader Rodolfo C. Fariñas of the First District of Ilocos Norte said the impeachment complaint against Bautista was not based on the personal knowledge of the complainants.
“If you look at the records and allegations, most of them are not their personal knowledge. Several paragraphs are quotes from news [reports],” Fariñas said.
Complainants Paras and Topacio accused Bautista of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution, amid allegations of P1-billion ill-gotten wealth by his wife Patricia Paz Bautista.
Fariñas said Patricia should have been included as one of the complainants in the impeachment rap.
In the complaint, Paras and Topacio said “Bautista culpably violated the Constitution and/or betrayed the public trust when he failed to truthfully, accurately or completely disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth as required under Section 17, Article 11 of the 1987 Constitution Anti-Graft and and Corrupt Practices Act, and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards Act.”
The complainants also said Bautista also neglected his duties and responsibilities as head of the agency, particularly collecting and further processing of personal data, which led to unnecessary exposure of personal and sensitive information of millions of Filipinos, and obstructed justice when he cleared Smartmatic and Comelec information-technology specialists of any wrongdoing for the so-called script tweak during the consolidation/canvassing of results in the May 2016 elections, among others.
The complainants alleged that Bautista betrayed public trust for failing to adopt safeguards under the Data Privacy Act, or Republic Act 10173, that could have prevented the data breach or hacking of the Comelec web site.
“He [Bautista] failed to promptly act on the hacking of the Comelec web site, as well as declined to assume direct control and supervision of the task force created after the incident,” the complaint said.
“For obstructing justice having said pending investigation that the script tweak was merely cosmetic, which was, in effect, an exoneration of those responsible for it,” it added.
Also, the complaint said Bautista, by his own admission, had received referral fees from the Smartmatic, the largest technology provider of the Comelec through the Divina Law Office.