FROM how it looks, another Cayetano would be taken for a ride back home where she would be made to stay for at least 90 days after a multi-sectoral group filed an ethics complaint over a spliced video posted on her Facebook account.
At the Senate, a group which calls itself Tindig Bayan asked the upper chamber’s ethics committee to censure Senator Pia Cayetano for what has been aptly referred to as deliberate dissemination of a spliced video which distorted the context of an exchange between House impeachment prosecutor and Akbayan partylist Rep. Chel Diokno and her brother Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano.
In her post, Cayetano accused Diokno of fishing for evidence against Vice President Sara Duterte.
Tindig Bayan, composed of women’s rights advocates, student leaders and civil society groups, is the very same group that filed the impeachment complaint against Duterte before the House of Representatives.
Among the signatories in the complaints include former Commission on Higher Education Chair Patricia Licaunan, University of the Philippines – Diliman professor and Everywoman co-convener Jean Franco, Parents Initiative and Social Awareness Mainstreaming Advocacy, Sanctuary Network, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila – College of Public Administration Student Council president Joahna Marie Dela Cruz, Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, District Wide Advocates Quezon City, and Pandayan Para sa Sosyalistang Pilipinas.
FAKE NEWS PEDDLER
The multi-sectoral group asked the upper chamber’s ethics committee “to conduct an inquiry into the public actions of Cayetano about her deliberate dissemination of a spliced and misleading video on her Facebook page.”
The one-minute video, which was “deliberately edited to mislead the public, is not merely a political act, but a serious ethical issue that strikes at the integrity of the Senate as an impeachment court.”
The video had a caption suggesting that the House prosecution’s move to have the Vice President’s tax and bank records presented in court was a mere fishing expedition or a blind attempt to find evidence of her alleged ill-gotten wealth.
It contained clips of the exchange between Diokno and Pia’s brother, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the Inquirer reported.
DECEITFUL CONDUCT
The complainants also said on Wednesday that Cayetano, by sharing the deliberately spliced video through her social media channel, violated the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability, which prohibits lawyers from engaging in “unlawful, dishonest, immoral or deceitful conduct.”
“Deliberately omitting Rep. Diokno’s legal explanation to invert the meaning of his statement constitutes active, calculated deceit. Sen. Pia S. Cayetano engaged in an artifice designed to deceive the viewing public into believing that Rep. Diokno confessed to an improper legal maneuver,” they said.
They called her post a “reckless disregard for the truth” and “a direct violation’’ of the oath among the senator-judges to remain impartial during the impeachment trial.
“The video only revealed her bias for the Vice President’s camp. Unfortunately, Sen. Pia no longer has the cold neutrality of an impartial judge, which all parties before a court are entitled to as part of due process,” they added.
INSTITUTIONAL DAMAGE
Tindig Bayan said the post caused “institutional damage” to the Senate and if Cayetano is not reprimanded, “it risks eroding public confidence in the neutrality expected of senator judges
“No one—especially senator-judges—should be permitted to distort or selectively present the official proceedings in a manner that misleads the public… When a senator-judge publicly acts in a manner inconsistent with the standards governing the proceedings, public confidence in the institution is inevitably diminished,” they said.
Diokno earlier clarified that the edited post appeared as if the prosecution panel was fishing for evidence, adding that the prosecution panel (which he’s part of) has actual proof to substantiate their impeachment complaints but that by pursuing the opening of the vice president’s financial documents, “they were not merely taking chances” in presenting proof that the VP had amassed unexplained wealth.
SUB JUDICE RULING
Cayetano’s video was captioned: “Are they just taking chances? Lacking evidence, yet already making accusations?”
The content of the video is being questioned by Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, prosecution team spokesman.
“A senator‑judge must first listen to the entire case and weigh all the evidence before reaching any conclusion,” reads part of Adiong’s statement on Sunday, adding that the caption “raises concerns it may have violated the sub judice rule, which bars statements touching on the merits of a case.”
“When you say the prosecution is accusing without evidence, it is difficult to argue that such a claim does not touch on the merits of a case still being heard by the impeachment court,” Adiong averred.
The Mindanao lawmaker believes the issue is not about curtailing the right of senator-judges to speak freely. But he said the members of the impeachment court must bear the appearance of fairness in a politically charged trial.
The public confidence in the trial depends on the senator-judge’s impartiality throughout the proceedings, he emphasized.