A committee of the House of Representatives has given former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez 10 days to answer a complaint filed against him for alleged disorderly conduct when he called the military to withdraw support for President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
“The allegations are very serious. The committee has given him 10 days from receipt of the order, for him to answer the complaint filed by Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy,” Rep. Raul Angelo Bongalon, a member of the House committee on ethics and privileges headed by Rep. Felimon Espares, said at a news conference.
The congressman from Ako Bicol partylist also revealed in the chamber’s weekly briefing that the Espares panel has decided during their “initial consideration” meeting held last May 2 that a “committee hearing” will be scheduled and held “after the lapse of 10 days.”
Already, Bongalon, a neophyte lawmaker, said the office of Davao del Norte first district congressman (Alvarez) has received the order via registered mail, as well as e-mail, which was coursed through his chief of staff.
“During our initial consideration, we found that the Uy complaint was sufficient both in form and in content as well,” the lawyer-legislator explained further, adding the suit also included Alvarez’s “habitual absences in Congress” which was incorporated to his “seditious” remarks against Marcos.
“His (Alvarez’s) remarks were dangerous, libelous and seditious, both in appearances and statements,” Bongalon said of the close buddy of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who served as his Speaker during the first two years of his reign, or until July 2018, when Alvarez was ousted.
Bongalon said Alvarez is currently facing three violations before the House ethics panel – Code of Conduct of the House of Representatives, disorderly behavior, and several laws, which included libel, in the Revised Penal Code.
Last week, Bongalon told journalists the House ethics probe on Alvarez for disorderly conduct is devoid of politics.
“I just want to clarify that this complaint started because a case was filed against him. So, the committee on ethics has to act on the complaint filed,” he said.
He said it just so happened that the subject of the complaint is a member of the House, so the committee “has to act on it.”
The complaint stemmed from a rally of the supporters of Duterte in Tagum City on April 14 where Alvarez called on the armed forces to turn their back on Marcos, who is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.