Baustista ready to face possible impeachment

Bautista said that he is ready to face impeachment proceedings (PNA photo)

“All these things should be presented in court, not in media,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista said Wednesday, referring to the allegations and documents his estranged wife, Patricia Bautista, bared to the public.

In an interview with ANC’s Headstart, Bautista emphasized that all the allegations of his wife are all falsifications and fabricated lies.

In the previous statements of Patricia, she claimed that she discovered passbooks and property documents at their home which are not included in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth (SALN).

Meanwhile, in his defense, Bautista said that he has several passbooks because of investments with his family.

“They stole the documents November 2016. Bakit ngayon lang nilalabas? (Why was it released only now?),” he said. He believed that there’s an orchestrated campaign against him, the Comelec, or the elections.

Bautista also said that he has been receiving letters threatening him about possible impeachment if he would not give his wife a total of P500 million cash and his two real properties in Taguig.

“This was a copy of an impeachment complaint that was sent surreptitiously by a person, supposedly Ivan Lu, to my sister on June 28, 2017,” Bautista said.

Bautista recalled his meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacanang last August 1. He said, “Hindi po ako kapit tuko sa kahit anong posisyon or panunungkulan. Kung ang palagay ko ay nagiging pabigat na isanginstitusyon, wala namang problema sa akin na magbitiw (I don’t cling to any position. If I think I would be a burden to any institution, I will not hesitate to resign).”

The poll chief is also ready to face impeachment proceedings.

“As an impeachable officer, that is always part and parcel of our terrain. If and when that happens, then I will have to face it,” he said.

Amid accusations of acquiring ill-gotten wealth, he claimed that her wife’s accusations are all motivated by greed.

He added that his wife planned with “certain people and groups to promote a political agenda designed to cast aspersions on me and the Comelec’s work in the 2016 elections.”

He contradicted the statement released by his wife that she prepared all these evidences. Bautista affirmed that all of these are “extortion plan with guidance from ill-intentioned lawyers”

The Comelec Chairman has already filed criminal complaints against his wife.

“We filed a case for grave coercion, for qualified theft and robbery, and also for extortion which is in the form of grave threats and life threats,” Bautista said in the same interview.