Sensing that his ouster was inevitable Monday, February 4, Speaker Jose de Venecia went on an hour-long barrage against the Administration to whom he attributed his impending fate. He vowed to divulge long-kept secrets of anomalies and indiscretions involving the national leadership to which not long ago he seemed to inextricably belong.
That all the more incensed even congressmen belonging to his own party Lakas-CMD. If there were skeletons in the closet why was he not perturbed at all through the years? What type of a man is he who does not suffocate in a room of toxic wastes? As a result 174 in all voted to dump him and only 35 believed he should stay on while 16 abstained. It was a catastrophe to a man who was once in the doorstep of the presidency.
What he knew if he really had some secrets he should have revealed long ago and not spill the beans because he was kicked out. But alongside that duty he must clear himself of serious charges of corruption against him aired by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile on his role in the North Rail Project. He must cleanse himself of graft charges fi led by lawyer Roel Pulido for granting legislative franchises and other business privileges to his son Joey de Venecia when he was already Speaker. He must account for what he did with the P3.5 billion annual congressional budget or possibly P42 billion in 12 years. His failure to report how he spent the gargantuan sum was, in fact, one of the main reasons why congressmen were peeved. In voting for his ouster Congressman Abraham Mitra even described Speaker de Venecia as the “father and root of corruption in Congress.”
