William Blake. The Punishment of The Thieves 1824-7. Chalk, pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 372 x 527 mm. “Purchased (by Tate Britain) with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the National Art Collections Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the National Art Collections Fund 1919” from tate.org.uk
The Comelec being a constitutionally independent body (not covered by the Administrative Code of course) , the Chair can resign and get clearance even if, as it were, there was a pending “administrative” complaint as it were, against him, i.e., if you want to stretch the characterization of an impeachment as administrative. But you can’t. It’s now moot.
The Speaker is probably required to take “judicial notice” of the announced resignation even without any official document being forwarded to his office on the resignation; and he (the Speaker) was probably in his right place when he announced that the impeachment complaint was now moot and academic and that he would therefore instruct that the impeachment be be shelved or archived. All these, legally defensible.
The “damage control” executed in a matter of minutes; the moves may be brilliant; the public official concerned did not even take fifteen minutes to file a written resignation with Comelec and the other public official concerned (the Speaker) did not take one hour to wait for any official document to reach his office.
Any discussion on the Abalos impeachment is moot.
It only becomes not moot if the impeachment complainants had reached such a momentum that they are willing to pursue the impeachment complaint to its logical conclusion by amending the complaint and impleading the only other public official who could be removed only by impeachment, who had ultimate control over the ZTE contract, and is immune from any suit except an impeachment suit. That requires the number 80 plus and, more important than the number, that requires discernment of accountability, commitment to eradicate corruption at the highest level of public office, and wisdom to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
Follow the evidence where it leads, follow the accountability.
I don’t know whether you have at least 80 congressmen who have that discernment, that commitment, that wisdom. I guess not.
