Ethics complaint filed vs Pia over spliced video
A group of women’s rights advocates, student leaders and civil society groups filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee against Sen. Pia Cayetano over the spliced video she posted online about her exchange with House prosecutor Rep. Chel Diokno in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, the complainants asked the panel to “conduct an inquiry into the public actions” of Cayetano regarding her “deliberate dissemination of a spliced and misleading video on her Facebook page.”
“The deliberate editing of official impeachment proceedings to mislead the public is not merely a political act, it is a serious ethical issue that strikes at the integrity of the Senate as an impeachment court,” they said in a separate statement.
The complainants include former Commission on Higher Education Chair Patricia Licaunan, University of the Philippines-Diliman professor and Everywoman coconvener 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.
The complaint was submitted by Tindig Pilipinas, one of the groups that filed impeachment complaints against Duterte at the House of Representatives.
The Senate ethics committee is currently chaired by Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
There was no immediate comment from Cayetano regarding the complaint.
Lawyers’ code violation
The one-minute video came with 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.
On Saturday, Diokno pushed back by noting how the one-minute video omitted the full context of the arguments he made on the floor.
The complainants also said on Wednesday that Cayetano, by sharing the 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.
Public confidence at stake
They called Cayetano’s 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 S. Cayetano 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.
The post caused “institutional damage” to the Senate, they said, and if Cayetano is not reprimanded by the chamber, “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.
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
