Lawyer files unprecedented ethics complaint vs JDV

An unprecedented ethics complaint was filed Thursday against Speaker Jose de Venecia for his alleged failure to stop his son from intervening in government transactions. Roberto Rafael Pulido, former legal counsel for the Magdalo Group of rebellious junior military officers, filed the complaint before the House committee on ethics and privileges. The 10-page complaint alleged that the Speaker abetted the criminal acts of his son and namesake, Jose “Joey" de Venecia III, after the latter illegally sought and secured in the 1990s a congressional franchise for his firm, Multi-Media Telephony Inc. (MTI). The complaint said Joey violated the Anti-Graft Law, which bans the intervention of certain relatives of high officials in any transaction or application with the government. “I’m not part of any interested group. I’m doing this as an ordinary citizen and a lawyer," Pulido told reporters. The younger De Venecia repeated the offense when MTI later had its franchise enlarged, the complaint alleged. The complaint also alleged that Joey again repeated the violation when he submitted an uninvited proposal to install a broadband network for the government. The complaint alleged that Joey established MTI with the trade name "Broadband Philippines," in 1993 and served as the firm's chairman and chief executive officer from incorporation until June 2007. According to the complaint, De Venecia III applied for a legislative franchise for MTI while his father was Speaker. The application was granted in February 1995, when Congress passed Republic Act 7908, entitled "An Act Granting the Multi-Media Telephony Inc., a franchise to construct, establish, operate and maintain radio paging system in the Philippines." Still while De Venecia Jr. was Speaker, Congress passed in June 1997 Republic Act 8332, which expanded MTI's original franchise and allowed the firm to provide broadband services. Both RAs 7908 and 8332 required MTI to submit annual reports to Congress, which in turn ascertains the company’s compliance with the conditions of its franchise, according to the complaint. In effect, Congress, led by the Speaker, not only granted special privileges to his son’s company, but "also retained the power to perpetuate such special privilege," the complaint said. On top of the unusual privileges granted by his father’s office, Joey submitted to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in November 2006 an unsolicited proposal to put up a broadband network for the government, the complaint alleged. The proposal was made through Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), a company Joey formed, according to the complaint. Joey has publicly admitted that he has substantial economic interests in AHI, and that he can in fact offer the position of director to any person he wishes, the complaint said. "Curiously, after allowing his son to obtain a franchise and broadening the authority of the same under his term, respondent De Venecia Jr., very early in his new term, publicly hailed his son as 'the father of broadband in the Philippines and Southeast Asia,'" the complaint added. The complaint alleged that De Venecia III "clearly violated" Section 5 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019), which provides that: "It shall be unlawful for the spouse or for any relative, by consanguinity or affinity, within the third civil degree, of the President of the Philippines , the Vice-President of the Philippines , the President of the Senate, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to intervene, directly or indirectly, in any business, transaction, contract or application, with the Government…" That the Speaker was aware of his son's violations in securing a franchise for MTI "is too obvious to ignore," the complaint said. - GMANews.TV