The Majority and the Minority must be united in supporting a realistic budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways in order to make a truism of the oft-repeated invocation that infrastructure is the engine of growth and help pursue the government’s “BBB” agenda.
We must restore the cuts in the DPWH submittal made by DBM. We must not only restore the excised allocations but must augment the DPWH’s budget once found to be justified and imperative.
By: Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
Elections constitute the bedrock of a democratic republican system. They are the veritable periodic and anticipated political exercise by the sovereign people of retaining or purging the elected officialdom.
It is for this reason that the right of suffrage is constitutionally guaranteed. It is equally accorded to both the powerful elite and the marginalized sectors.
Emailed to the Committee on Justice at 12:45PM on November 24, 2017.
24 November 2017
Dear Chairman Umali,
I write to earnestly request Your Honor to extend your liberality in allowing me to propound clarificatory or cross-examination questions to Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita L. de Castro in the event she appears as a witness in the impeachment proceedings.
HON. REYNALDO V. UMALI
Chairman
Committee on Justice
House of Representatives
Constitution Hills, Quezon City
Dear Chairman Umali,
This is also in response to Your Honor’s instruction (and that of Hon. Rodolfo C. Fariñas, Majority Leader) during the last meeting of the Committee on Justice on 05 October 2017, for interested Representatives to submit their respective position papers on the right of non-members to participate in the impeachment proceedings before the Committee on Justice.
It is the immutable and inflexible tradition in the House of Representatives that House Members who are not members of standing and special committees have the right to participate in the proceedings of the committees without the right to vote.
HON. REYNALDO V. UMALI
Chairman
Committee on Justice
House of Representatives
Constitution Hills, Quezon City
Dear Chairman Umali,
In compliance with your Honor’s instruction (and also that of Hon. Rodolfo C. Fariñas, Majority Leader) during the last meeting of the Committee on Justice on 05 October 2017, I am respectfully submitting the instant position paper on the right to counsel of a respondent in an impeachment case and his/her corollary right to cross-examine by counsel the complainant and his witnesses.
While admittedly an impeachment proceeding is political in nature, it is imbued with a judicial character akin to a criminal prosecution.
