by Diego Morra
By dismissing the impeachment complaint filed by Bayan Muna against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the House of Representatives is serving notice to all and sundry that impeachment as a process of political rebuke and demand for accountability among erring public officials is dead. The tyranny of numbers has led to the tyranny of their truth as the plenary approved the expected dismissal of the complaint, burying the case to allow Congress to deal squarely with the impeachment of Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio.
The Lower House acted with uncharacteristic haste in killing the impeachment complaint despite the novelty of the allegations, including the assertion that the so-called “baselined, balanced and managed” (BBM) parametric formula for dispatching public money as “allocables” to finance infrastructure projects in congressional districts clashes with the Constitutional ban on pork barrel mandate as institutionalized in the 2013 Supreme Court (SC) decision that banned the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF.)
It is the first time in the country’s history that a scheme hatched to subvert the prudent, rational and appropriate spending of people’s money hewed closely to cash requirements of political dynasties and their surrogates in the subverted party-lists, the hunger of contractors for easy money through DPWH deals, and the funding requirements of ward leaders, even the trolls and crones manning keyboards to promote their propaganda and deodorize the cranky, indolent and media-hogging legislators.
This BBM parametric formula by its very nature institutionalizes graft inasmuch as it is hatched by the DPWH and the legislators, with the same formula providing congressmen and senators to wangle projects left and right, not in the hope of creating megaliths in their districts but in anticipation of the hefty slices of the pie to which they are entitled. Remember that this BBM Parametric Formula was crafted not in response to the real needs of the districts or the requirements of a national infrastructure plan similar to the nationwide flood control system inherited by the Rodrigo Duterte administration but was never funded.
The tragedy is that P1.2-trillion of the people’s money was channeled to these “allocables,” without the people knowing that they are being fried in their own lard, with money from the direct and indirect taxes they pay ending up as substandard, or as ghost projects waiting be funded twice or thrice. Despite the demand of people’s organizations to monitor and assess the budget-making process, with the House appropriations committee itself promising to allow such monitoring, the insertions in the 2026 happened in sub rosa meetings in which dubious appropriations were approved, including unprogrammed appropriations (UA) using proceeds from foreign loans and savings. Congress even stood pat in maintaining redundant “assistance” programs for the ailing, those earning less than the minimum wage and those permanently incapacitated, never mind if existing programs already provide the lifelines that they need.
The firing squad known as the House justice committee acted with uncanny speed in dealing the death blow to the Koalisyong Makabayan impeachment complaint not because it lacked substance but because it indicts Congress itself and reads the Rot Act on Malacanang as the automated teller machine (ATM.) In a matter of five days, the panel dismissed the Koalisyong Makabayan complaint for lack of substance even as it is clear as the spires of Winchester Cathedral that you just cannot toss an impeachment complaint without analyzing the stipulations as regards the BBM parametric formula. Curiously, the panel took the position that the BBM formula was not the handiwork of Bongbong but merely a creation of the DPWH, never mind if some fellows framed it to curry favor with the Palace and the lawmakers who have the power of the purse. The substance of the complaint is in the BBM itself and why those who divvied up the cash are grafters.
Bayan Muna Chairperson Neri Colmenares was right to denounce the dismissal of the impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos, recalling that smells, looks and tastes like the tired arguments that once shielded former President Gloria Arroyo. A lawyer himself, Colmenares scored the argument that since the complaint was comprised of allegations, it should fall. This should not be the case since the complainants are ready to prove that the BBM parametric formula was graft itself, with the disbursement of the people’s dime being tackled in camera and not aligned with the National Expenditure Program (NEP) approved by the two chambers.
He argued that all complaints—civil, criminal, or impeachment—begin as allegations, with truth established only during hearings. “This is a rehash of the Arroyo dismissals,” he said, stressing that dismissing cases at the procedural stage undermines accountability. He said that impeachment proceedings are divided into three stages: Procedural review, hearings where evidence is presented, and the final report. His argument is that the lawmakers should have given the complaint a thorough review and determine if the allegations, once proven, constitute an impeachable offense. The panel’s conduct reminds everyone that giving short shrift to the complaint is akin to the Supreme Court’s decision to accord respondents in impeachment cases more rights than citizens who are holding them to account. “Impeachment is the only constitutional mechanism to hold top officials to account. If complaints are dismissed outright as mere allegations, then accountability becomes a myth,” Colmenares concluded.#
