MindevBlogGroup

EDITORIAL

11/24/2008

It seems that former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has made good his vow to bare all about the shady dealings of Gloria to which he was witness, in the form of a surprise package of a book.

In an autobiography with a kilometric title “Global Filipino: The Authorized Biography of Jose de Venecia Jr., the Visionary Five-Time Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines,” De Venecia detailed a meeting among the First Couple, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman and Chinese supplier ZTE broker Benjamin Abalos Sr., and ZTE officials in 2006 in Shenzhen, China to discuss the $329-million kickback bonanza that was the National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

All along many thought that JdV had again succumbed to his perennial weakness that is political vacillation and had forgotten all about his pledge to bare all he knew about corruption under the Gloria regime to the day he was ousted as Speaker in a House coup led by the two congressmen who are the presidential sons, who are now taking on the role of eminence grise in the House.

That portion of the book appears to be a written confession that if court jurisprudence would be followed, what he exposed would amount to damning evidence against Gloria.

The Supreme Court (SC) in the days after the 2001 power-grab of Gloria Arroyo, which the high court blessed, despite its unconstitutionality, extensively relied on the so-called Angara diary to “decipher” the intent of former President Joseph Estrada when he was claimed to have issued a statement to vacate Malacañang Palace. He never did. Instead, what Estrada did was to write two official letters to the heads of Congress, to state that he was taking a temporary leave of absence.

The SC, then led by Chief Justice Hilario Davide who violated the Constitution when he swore in Gloria Arroyo despite the fact that the presidency was not vacant, to seal the Estrada’s overthrow, ruled then that Estrada had resigned from the presidency based on the Angara diary, which, it must be stressed, was introduced by the court itself and worse, came after the fact of the swearing in.

The JdV autobiography should have the same weight as proof in the NBN controversy, which in turn is one of the grounds for impeachment cited in the latest complaint against Gloria, as Angara’s authenticated diary had been extensively used in justifying Estrada’s ouster.

Unconstitutional it was, but the SC decision on the Angara diary, from which was based the shameful doctrine of “constructive resignation” is already part of jurisprudence.

That part of De Venecia’s book should also have weight in the House deliberation on the impeachment complaint since it should offer strong proof on one of the grounds for the charges.

What JdV recounted were the fine details of whatever Gloria’s allies had long been challenging to be produced on the many corruption allegations in her administration.

Among all past political allies, JdV would have the widest window into the dealings of Gloria and her cohorts, including the sinister ones.

Malacañang may have dismissed the value of JdV in Gloria’s political equation too fast believing that JdV’s influence in the House was a thing of the past.

While he may have lacked the charisma to turn in the popular votes, JdV has polished his political acumen being the Speaker for longer than Gloria would have spent as president.

JdV obviously had more than pride at stake in what appears to be the start of a war of attrition against Gloria.

Earlier, JdV supposedly made a threat that if he goes down Gloria would go down with him.

Those who heard JdV utter those words may have misread him.

It could be that which was said was not a threat but a promise after all.