MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines’ oldest congressman Tuesday claimed that Jesus Christ and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shared something in common: They were both crucified for scoring low in popularity polls.
Pablo Garcia Sr., 83, is the patriarch of the powerful family in Cebu that was instrumental in Ms Arroyo’s victory over the late Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 election. He is the father of Government Service Insurance System General Manager Winston Garcia and Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia.
“More than 2,000 years ago, our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified because of an opinion survey. Pontius Pilate presented our Lord to the crowd and said, ‘Whom would you prefer, Barabas or Christ to crucify?’ Our Lord Jesus Christ lost in the survey. Is that how we are going to judge our President because of an opinion survey?” Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia said during Tuesday’s impeachment hearing.
Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the complainant’s star witness, said that comparing Ms Arroyo with Jesus was “stretching it too far.”
“We should not take the name of our God, Jesus, lightly. We should not compare GMA (Ms Arroyo) to Jesus who is our Lord God. President Arroyo is not our lord,” De Venecia said in an interview with reporters during a break in the hearing.
‘Bizarre’
Garcia used Jesus’ crucifixion to debunk what he claimed was the “most bizarre and ludicrous” allegation in the impeachment complaint filed by a group led by De Venecia’s son Joey, losing bidder in the scuttled NBN-ZTE deal.
The impeachment complaint charged that the public did not believe the President’s denial that she cheated in the 2004 election, citing a January 2008 poll which found that majority of Filipinos in Mindanao believed that the President stole the vote.
“Since when in this country is a person convicted of an offense as a result of an opinion survey? We have never learned our lesson,” Garcia said in the course of his testimony which lasted nearly an hour.
Garcia said that this was the same as a judge asking the crowd in his court for their opinion on whether an accused was guilty or not and using the results for his ruling.
The impeachment complaint further stated that no indicator is more accurate in quantifying the degree of public trust that the Filipino people have felt under respondent’s administration than surveys on respondent’s trust ratings.
Garcia pointed out the betrayal of public trust in the Constitution referred to a violation of an oath of office, not just simply losing the trust of the people in a survey.
“A public officer may have committed a betrayal of public trust and yet in the survey he may be rating high. I think this is just a confusion in this complaint,” Garcia said.
‘Inconsistent witness’
Deputy presidential spokesperson Anthony Golez also downplayed De Venecia’s testimony against Ms Arroyo in the impeachment hearing, portraying him as an “inconsistent witness.”
“No,” Golez said when asked if Malacańang expected De Venecia to reprise the role played by then Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson in the downfall of President Joseph Estrada in 2001.
“We see him as a witness who says one thing right now, and says another thing the following day,” he said. With a report from TJ Burgonio
