HE STILL has the P500,000 from Malacañang in its original paper bag.

Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he, along with some other congressmen and local officials, was given the alleged bribe on Oct. 11, 2007, to support a "sham" impeachment complaint to protect President Macapagal-Arroyo from a stronger suit.

On the same day he received the payoff, the then Speaker De Venecia said Ms Arroyo pressured him three times during a meeting in her Malacañang office to endorse the "weak" impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Roel Pulido.

De Venecia said the P500,000 was brought to his office in the House of Representatives by a staff member of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office on the afternoon of Oct. 11 when the House was set to vote on the Pulido complaint.

He said the bribe and Ms Arroyo's pressuring him amounted to obstruction of justice and betrayal of the public trust, which were grounds for impeaching the President.

"I'm planning to give the money to the House committee or to the CBCP (Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines) president Archbishop Angel Lagdameo," De Venecia said.

De Venecia is set to testify Monday in the House justice committee hearing on the latest impeachment complaint against Ms Arroyo. He said he would disclose the October payoff and "as many" other scandals in the Arroyo administration as he can.

The committee on Tuesday agreed that the complaint was sufficient in form. Today, the panel will deliberate on its substance and is scheduled to hear a "recital of facts" from the accusers.

The new impeachment complaint was filed by the congressman's son Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico, lawyer Harry Roque and mothers of missing student activists. Cited as grounds were bribes to lawmakers, the scuttled $329-million NBN-ZTE project, the P728-million fertilizer scam and extrajudicial killings.

Case likely to be junked
Administration allies are expected to use their superior number in junking the complaint, just as they did in three previous cases. Under the Constitution, only one impeachment complaint against the President is allowed in one year.

The younger De Venecia blew the whistle on alleged overpricing and bribery in the NBN-ZTE project to wire the nation's offices digitally in September last year, implicating the President's husband Jose Miguel Arroyo and then Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos. His exposé later cost his father the speakership.

Congressman De Venecia, who is supporting his son's fight, recalled that on Oct. 11, 2007, cash bribes were handed out to some lawmakers and local officials who were called to a meeting in Malacañang.

The Inquirer broke the story about the payoffs after Ms Arroyo met with 189 congressmen over breakfast and 200 local officials at lunch in the Palace.

The bribes ranged from P200,000 to P500,000 and were contained in paper bags handed to the officials after the Palace meetings. Television cameras caught some of the officials leaving the Palace carrying identical paper bags.

De Venecia would be the third to confirm getting P500,000--after Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio, who talked about it to the Inquirer on Oct. 13, and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who made the disclosure on Oct. 15.

Several congressmen also admitted they got the cash gifts in varying amounts. After conflicting explanations by Malacañang officials, House Deputy Speaker Amelita Villarosa said the money came from the funds of Ms Arroyo's party Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino). She said it was "regular help" for coalition members, a party initiative without the knowledge of the President.

"The money was given to some congressmen in the morning and to some governors and mayors in the afternoon," De Venecia said. "It was a bribe for the transmittal of the bogus impeachment complaint."

De Venecia said not all congressmen were given the bribe. Those who were invited to the Palace were administration allies. "The minority definitely did not get the bribe," De Venecia said.

Asked what the money given to him was for, he said: "It was for me to transmit the bogus complaint to the committee."

Money in a safe
De Venecia admitted he regretted not having disclosed the bribe earlier. He explained that he had hoped Ms Arroyo would "turn around" from the scandals facing her administration and join his call for a "moral revolution" in the government.

He said that as soon as he retrieved P500,000 from a safe, he would turn it over either to the House committee or to Lagdameo, who made a call for a "new government" several weeks ago.

On the day the Palace visitors got the cash gifts, De Venecia recalled that he was at the Music Room at 11 a.m. being pressured by Ms Arroyo to transmit the Pulido complaint. He said there were seven House leaders in the office, who were waiting for him on that morning.

"She was forcing me to endorse the bogus complaint to give her a one-year immunity (from impeachment)," De Venecia told the Inquirer.

Malacañang had repeatedly denied it was behind the weak impeachment complaint.

At first, he said Ms Arroyo "talked to me nicely."

"Please endorse the impeachment complaint," he quoted her as saying.

'I wanted to walk out'
"I did not respond so she repeated it several times. I wanted to walk out," De Venecia said.

He said he refused and told the President he would just abstain from the proceedings. It was agreed in the President's Music Room office that Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar would act as presiding officer in lieu of De Venecia.

He said that his parting with Ms Arroyo after the meeting was "not very pleasant."

"That moment I knew I would lose the speakership. I knew in my heart that they will remove me," De Venecia recalled.

From Malacañang, De Venecia returned to the House where allies of the President had taken control of the impeachment proceedings. Del Mar presided over the session and transmitted the Pulido complaint to the justice committee, which eventually killed it.

Four months later, on Feb. 4 this year, De Venecia was ousted as Speaker.

Plot to vilify JDV
De Venecia also talked about that fateful Oct. 11 meeting in his biography, soon to be launched, minus the details about the P500,000 and how the President pressured him in Malacañang.

In "Global Filipino: the Authorized Biography of Jose de Venecia Jr., the Visionary Five-Time Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines," written by Brett M. Decker, an editor of the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, De Venecia detailed the events leading to the transmittal of the Pulido complaint.

In a sub-chapter titled "A Conspiracy to Vilify the Speaker," De Venecia recalled arriving at the Palace two hours after the breakfast meeting.

"Almost the entire leadership of the House waited for him to come: Deputy Speakers Raul del Mar, Simeon Datumanong, Eric Singson and Girlie Villarosa; Majority Leader Arthur Defensor; Senior Assistant Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales (Jr.); and Justice Committee Chair Matias Defensor," the book said.

"The Speaker was received by the President, who asked him immediately to refer the impeachment complaint to the House committee on justice. She had never before been so eager to see the impeachment drives against her escalate. The change of heart confirmed what he had felt all along, that this complaint that savaged him was inspired and instigated by the Palace."

"I refuse to endorse such a sham, such a ridiculous complaint," De Venecia told Ms Arroyo in the presence of his allies in the House leadership, the book said.

De Venecia talked about an assassination plot against him and his son Joey by known Palace aides, which he noted did not merit an order of investigation from Ms Arroyo. He described Feb. 4, the day he was ousted, as a "night of a hundred knives."