00:00Once you're elected to an office, you are expected, not only by the Constitution, by the people, to act in a certain ways.
00:12You have to maintain and uphold the integrity of your office.
00:17And similarly, we expect our fellow public servants to do the same.
00:21In this impeachment case, as Mr. Bosnoi said earlier, there are serious offenses, high crimes committed by the Vice President.
00:36So we cannot turn a blind eye and be more concerned about the possible backlash that it may cause us politically.
00:46Of course, that's a consideration. Who wouldn't think of that?
00:51But this is already an issue of being a public servant.
00:57Being a politician is just a secondary line.
01:00Of course, it's a value judgment call, as Mr. Bosnoi said.
01:04How will you face yourself in front of people who you say are prohibited from threatening other people?
01:15Much more than a sitting president.
01:18How will you face yourself and say that there should be no corruption in the country?
01:24How will you face yourself when you are prohibited from bribing, like our government, because we just want to get our desired results?
01:36How will we face ourselves, our fellow citizens?
01:41How will you face yourself when you say that a mandated agency will give and audit,
01:48and then a constitutional agency will give a mandate to take it and examine how the people were spent?
01:58How will you uphold that?
02:03How will we face that?
02:06I'm not speaking for the entire membership of the House.
02:08How will I face myself in front of my voters if I turn a blind eye
02:14and just simply concern myself with the possible popularity that I may get once I associate myself with who is popular
02:25and who has the tendency or the capacity to give me votes in the election?
02:31Isn't it better in a public service that for the three years being a congressman elected in that office,
02:41you swore in the League of Laws in front of people and in front of God
02:45that these ethics that a public service should follow,
02:55you will just ignore them just because you are more concerned of the popularity that you may get or the votes that you may get?
03:04How will I face myself in front of my voters if I turn a blind eye on these high crimes that were committed blatantly under the sun?
03:19So much blatantly that we cannot even ignore to a point that I can no longer turn a blind eye on these allegations
03:30and just simply brush it off simply because I am from Mindanao.
03:33I think it's time for us to be more circumspect in really trying to approach the issue
03:43when it comes to a certain area that we can say that this cannot be done by a public
03:52that our basis should be our being Filipino rather than our being regionalistic.
03:59I think it's high time that we should approach the issue based on our being patriotic
04:04as not just as a public servant but as a Filipino because we are all of us are expected to uphold the Constitution
04:12and it's our civic duty to promote decency in public office.
