JDV confirms impeachment raps vs Abalos now 'moot and academic'

House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr on Monday confirmed that the impeachment case against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos has been rendered "moot and academic" with the latter’s resignation. In a statement, De Venecia said Abalos’s decision to voluntarily relinquish his post will spare the Lower House from a “protracted, contentious and potentially divisive impeachment process." This as De Venecia said he was prepared to refer on Monday the impeachment complaint against Abalos to the House Committees on Rules and Justice. An impeachment complaint was filed at the Lower House last week after Abalos has been accused of intervening in behalf of China’s ZTE Corp. and bribed a Cabinet official in relation to the $329.48 million national broadband network (NBN) project. “This resignation, while personally painful to Chairman Abalos, will now spare this 14th Congress—and the Filipino people—a protracted, contentious and potentially divisive impeachment process," De Venecia said. “Today I was prepared to discharge my constitutional duty and refer to the Committee on Rules and the Committee on Justice the impeachment complaint. This was the first of a series of decisive steps I was prepared to undertake purposely—to ensure that the constitutional process will be attended by the airtight guarantee that it will be fair, just and shielded from any kind of bias or influence... (A)ll these... steps have become moot and academic with the resignation of Chairman Abalos," he added. De Venecia said with Abalos’s decision to resign his post, he will now request the Committee on Rules and House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor to present the impeachment complaint to the plenary for immediate shelving to the congressional archives. De Venecia said he has asked members of the Lower House to “disregard party politics and vote their conscience on this impeachment complaint," which he said was a departure from the tradition of party discipline. In his statement, De Venecia also said the Lower House can now focus on deliberations on next year’s national budget. “It also enables us to begin putting this controversy behind us and focusing all our energies on consolidating our economic gains over these last 18 months. The momentum of this growth must be sustained, and this we are prepared to ensure," De Venecia said. “Between now and October 13 when Congress goes on recess, we… will have approved the all-important P1.227-trillion national budget and the medicines price-reduction bill which our people are waiting for," he added. - GMANews.TV