Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. gave all the credit to President Benigno Aquino III for inspiring the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, with 92 percent of the 284-member House of Representatives, including chronic absentee Negros Occidental Rep. Jules Ledesma IV, staying on until a little past Monday midnight to cast their vote.

“I was surprised because the results were higher than I expected. It showed that they really wanted to see [the President] succeed because he kept saying that [Gutierrez’s impeachment] is important to his administration. It would have been unthinkable to see that the House does not support the President,” Belmonte said Tuesday at a press conference.

The Speaker said the Senate would be hard-put to ignore the 212-47 vote despite Gutierrez’s claim that she had better chances of keeping her post by just getting at least seven senators on her side.

“[The representatives] knew a lot of people were watching how we were going to vote. The House, in good faith, believes in the strength of this particular impeachment process, and it is not something that [the Senate] can brush aside,” he said.

But people in the know said it was Belmonte’s realpolitik that turned the tide for the majority bloc which, up to a few days ago, was unsure of whether it could even muster a quorum for the impeachment case.

To that comment, Belmonte said: “It’s flattering to hear. But they voted as they wanted to vote, so it is not a question of managing to do it. The only thing I asked of them was to please be there so we can have a quorum.”

He added that the activity had left him “exhausted.”

Close vote expected

Belmonte said that as early as Saturday morning, he directed his staff to send a text message to each member of the House urging them to attend Monday’s voting.

What was described as a “juggernaut” against Gutierrez had been steadily losing steam heading to the last week of the congressional session, as administration allies refused to order a party vote for impeachment.

After Minority Leader Edcel Lagman warned the majority against being too cocky in the impeachment case, Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., the chair of the House justice committee, admitted over the weekend that the voting would be close.

Tupas claimed that 150 members signified support for Gutierrez’s impeachment a week before the voting but that some of them wavered after a ranking Iglesia Ni Cristo official personally called or met with them to convince them to vote “no,” abstain to defeat the case, or be absent to prevent a quorum.

So worried

Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said the coalition was so worried about ensuring a quorum for the Monday vote that it called an emergency caucus on Sunday night to ensure that the allies were on the same page.

Aside from Belmonte and Gonzales, those present at the dinner held at a hotel restaurant at the Ortigas Center were Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla (Nacionalista Party); Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian, Batangas Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza, and Tarlac Rep. Henry Cojuangco (Nationalist People’s Coalition, or NPC); Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino and Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez (National Unity Party, or NUP); Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (PDP-Laban); An Waray Rep. Florencio Noel; Camarines Sur Representatives Rolando Andaya Jr. and Arnulfo Fuentebella (NPC); Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza, and Zamboanga City Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco (Liberal Party, or LP).

“The Speaker asked them to keep the debate short and orderly, and he personally pitched for the impeachment of the Ombudsman as one of the fervent desires of the President,” Gonzales said.

Dinner diplomacy

Belmonte’s last-minute appeal apparently paid off. The NPC reportedly decided to back Gutierrez’s impeachment as a party, with a son of its founder Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. showing up at the House to personally rally the troops.

Case in point: Isabela Rep. Georgidi Aggabao of the NPC voted “yes” in plenary after voting “no” at the committee level. Also, only one of the nine Negros representatives—Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, brother-in-law of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo—voted “no.”

But Danding Cojuangco’s son, former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, clarified that the NPC did not change its mind because “the party never had a stand on the issue to begin with.”

Belmonte’s dinner diplomacy also succeeded in convincing the NUP to give its members more leeway in deciding on the issue.

Gonzales said the fact that Andaya and Antonino voted against impeachment showed that no horse-trading was used to bring about the Monday vote.

A total of 210 “yes” votes, 47 “no” votes and four abstentions was announced on the floor after the roll call voting.

JV changes mind

But the scorecard was changed 30 minutes later after San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito asked that his “no” vote be counted as “yes.”

Explaining his change of vote, Ejercito said that the impeachment process proved to be one of the most painful experiences one could go through, and that he took as a challenge the “blackmail” text message purportedly sent by Cavite Rep. Emilio Abaya saying that those who would vote “no” or abstain from voting would get no pork barrel. Abaya has denied having sent the message.

“But in the end, I realized that the quest for truth is more important and that the victims here are the Filipino people whom the Arroyos have robbed through the years. Yes to impeachment of the Ombudsman! Yes to the prosecution of Gloria Arroyo!” Ejercito said.

Makati Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay also asked that her “yes” vote be counted after the secretary general failed to include it during the roll call. This brought the total “yes” votes to 212.

‘Sonny Belmonte show’

A source from the administration coalition noted that the 212 “yes” vote was just 15 shy of the 227 who voted to elect Belmonte as Speaker last July.

“That was the Sonny Belmonte show; the Liberal Party just watched from the sidelines,” said the source, who pointed out that LP members continued to differentiate themselves between the originals (such as Tupas and Tañada) and the converts (Belmonte and Gonzales were with Lakas-Kampi just before the May 2010 elections).

The source said the LP originals had to turn to the converts to save the day for the impeachment case. (The party has 83 members and more than 12 party-list affiliates and could have easily achieved the one-third vote on its own. But the possible lack of a quorum was by far the biggest issue.)

Hoax message

But aside from the quorum problem, Belmonte had to work overtime during the weekend because the threatening text message purportedly sent by LP stalwart Abaya had turned off some allies.

The Speaker had to personally call coalition members and assure them that it was a hoax.

“There is no such thing. What made it believable to some, although it seemed very obvious to me that it couldn’t be done, was that it had been done in the past. As you know, it was used to fight against [Arroyo’s] impeachment,” he said.

He added that this administration could not use the pork barrel as a leverage because President Aquino himself had declared that all lawmakers, whether friend or foe, would get their share of the Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Gil Cabacungan, Jr., Phil. Daily Inquirer