(Eagle News) — Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista viewed as “unfortunate” the decision of the House of Representatives that voted to impeach him, saying it was an “unnecessary move.”
In a statement, Bautista also acknowledged that the lawmakers were “entitled to their own opinion,” and said that he will abide by the rules on the impeachment process.
“It is unfortunate that the decision of the House Committee on Justice, which was voted upon twice by a vote of 26-2, to dismiss the impeachment complaint against me was overturned this afternoon by the House of Representatives,” he said.
“While it may be an unnecessary move since I already tendered my resignation to the President today effective end of the year to ensure a smooth transition, I will abide by the Constitution and the relevant rules regarding the impeachment process,” he added.
But Kabayan party list representative Harry Roque said that Bautista’s move declaring before the Comelec family his intention to resign in December was nothing but a move to buy time, and to avoid being impeached.
Fortunately, he said, the lawmakers saw through this and decided to overturn the earlier decision of the House Committee on Justice dismissing the impeachment complaint against Bautista for insufficiency of form.
The next step is the impeachment trial of Comelec chairman Bautista before the Senate, he said.
– Impeachment vote, an answered prayer, says Rep. Roque-
“I prayed for a miracle and the miracle happened. Andy Bautista is impeached,” Roque said.
He said that the allegation against Bautista was that he accepted referral fees from SMARTMATIC which eventually handled the automated presidential elections of 2016 which had been marred by allegations of cheating.
An electoral protest case is now being heard by the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, based on these allegations of electoral cheating through a change in the SMARTMATIC hashcode during the vote counting made by then vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Marcos cast doubts on the outcome of the vice-presidential race, and questioned the supposed victory of Vice-President Leni Robredo.
Roque said that Bautista’s admission that he had indeed received commissions from SMARTMATIC cast doubt on the integrity of the previous automated elections.
“Ang alegasyon sa kanya, tumanggap siya at hindi lang allegation, inamin niya na tumanggap siya sa SMARTMATIC,” he said in a press briefing after the House vote to impeach the Comelec chief.
“we are confident that we can restore the credibility and trustworthiness of our automated electoral process. So after the impeachment, I now call on Congress to convene the joint committee on electoral reform para mapag-usapan na kung ano talaga ang automated system na gagamitin for 2019,” Roque said.
(Eagle News Service)