Tiangco challenges congressmen to rebutt his testimony

MANILA, Philippines- Navotas Representative Tobias Tiangco on Monday challenged any congressman who thinks he is lying to voluntarily testify and rebut his testimony.

“I am under oath. If I said something that wasn’t true [or] if I lied, I appeal to whoever [was] offended to voluntarily testify under oath. So we can find out who is not telling the truth,” Tiangco told reporters after Monday’s proceedings.

“But if they are offended because what I am saying is true, it’s not my fault,” Tiangco added.

Tiangco was called by the defense to testify on the alleged pressure being used by allies of President Benigno Aquino in the House of Representatives to get them to sign the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona.
The defense had repeatedly argued throughout the impeachment trial that the impeachment complaint was not properly verified by the congressmen because many of them were not able to read it completely.

Tiangco said that he attended a caucus that was set to discuss the impeachment complaint but no copy was shown to them so he was not able to read the complaint. Only a power point presentation regarding the articles of impeachment was shown, Tiangco said in his testimony.

“I am only testifying regarding the time that I was [in the caucus], from 2:30 pm  to 4:10 pm. After that I don’t know what happened. I am not saying all the 188 [congressmen] were not able to read the complaint, I am saying I was not able to read [it because there were] no copies yet,” Tiangco said.