Gabriela cries foul, but Alvarez ethics case won’t prosper, says solon

Photo from Pantaleon Alvarez Facebook page

The Gabriela women’s party-list on Friday hit out at House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for his comments that appeared to support extramarital affairs, even as other lawmakers admitted that unseating him was next to impossible.

Alvarez had admitted that he was estranged from his wife of 30 years, Emelita Apostol, and that he had a “girlfriend.”

He made the comments after news reports suggested that charges he filed against his erstwhile close friend and fellow Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. was brought about by animosity between Floirendo’s common-law wife and Alvarez’s girlfriend.

“My God, come on. Who doesn’t have a girlfriend?,” Alvarez had said, and suggested that no lawyers would be left if everyone was disbarred for extramarital affairs.

But Gabriela responded on Friday and charged that Alvarez had cast an “unnecessary intrigue” on the legal profession.

“As defender of women’s rights, we express grave concern as to how Speaker Alvarez flaunts his extramarital affairs as something ordinary and acceptable. It reeks of machismo, unbecoming a public servant, more so of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Gabriela said.

“The recent statement made by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on his extramarital affairs and his insinuation that all other lawyers in the country might be disbarred too for such act is a reckless generalization,” it said.

Alvarez has filed a graft case against Floirendo and sought a congressional investigation on alleged conflict of interest in the latter’s lease of government land for his banana company, the Tagum Agricultural Development Corp.

The scandal has become the talk of the town in the House of Representatives, which is on recess and will resume work on May 2.

Not enough to be disbarred

Still, lawmakers said they saw little chance of ousting Alvarez over his admission, arguing that he still enjoyed President Duterte’s support despite his marital indiscretions.

“As long as he is Speaker, an ethics case will not prosper. As you have seen, our rules will be interpreted the way the majority wants it interpreted,” Rep. Toby Tiangco, an independent, told the Inquirer.

“In reality, only one vote is needed to be Speaker, and that is the President’s vote. Whoever the President wants to be Speaker will be Speaker,” Tiangco said.

Akbayan Rep. Tomasito Villarin, a member of the opposition bloc, said he doubted that a case against Alvarez would even take off. Of 292 House members, almost 270 are in the supermajority with 18 in the minority group and another seven in an independent opposition bloc.

Another opposition lawmaker, Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, agreed, saying: “Much as it could be considered immoral, I don’t think it would be grounds for an ethics case.”

But both Villarin and Baguilat said Alvarez lost his moral high ground as a result of the controversy.

“Speaker Alvarez must now tell the public that he is as  ‘clean as Caesar’s wife’ when he lambasted then Senator [Leila] de Lima for having an affair with a married man. The Speaker or any public official should be above reproach when it comes to morals,” Villarin said.

In November, amid a congressional inquiry into the senator’s alleged involvement in the drug trade in the national penitentiary, Alvarez questioned De Lima’s moral probity when the investigation unearthed her affair with her driver Ronnie Dayan, a married man who allegedly served as her conduit in receiving money from drug lords.