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Thursday, September 01, 2005
Jaraula chides impeach solons
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CAGAYAN de Oro Representative Constantino Jaraula grabbed the limelight from the opposition during the Justice Committee hearing on the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Congress Wednesday.
This came as Second District of Misamis Oriental Representative Augusto Baculio, Jr. said Wednesday night he has not yet signed the impeachment complaint, which is said to have gathered 73 signatures already, for it to be transmitted to the Senate believing that everything has now become 'non-sensible.'
During the justice committee hearing Wednesday, another commotion broke out anew during the hearing.
People in the gallery in the House session hall began shouting and calling for Arroyo's impeachment after Marinqudue Representative Edmundo Reyes delivered a speech on behalf of the pro-impeachment legislators who decided to boycott the hearing.
The protestors were dragged out of the plenary hall and the building.
Reyes ended his speech by submitting two envelopes - one containing the name of 23 legislators who committed to sign the amended impeachment complaint and the other six blank endorsement forms.
Reyes said they now have 73 signatures in the amended complaint, six signatures shy of the 79 required signatures to enable the case to be transmitted to the Senate for trial.
He asked the justice committee to consolidate the three-impeachment complaints and tackle it in one proceeding.
Reyes asked the committee to allow the truth and their evidence to be presented.
But just when all focus were given to the opposition, Jaraula took to the stand and rebutted Reyes's statements and scoffed at six endorsement forms left by Reyes.
"I have no desire, not even an iota of desire to sign the same. Is the truth equal to the 79 votes, is it really?" he said during his speech.
He said those who refused to endorse the complaint had no hand on the making of the Constitution that provides that they should get 79 votes.
Jaraula pointed out that Congress have not yet even reached the part as to counting the signatures as to whether they have reached 79 for it to be transmitted to the Senate.
"It is not our problem Mr. Chairman to produce the 79 signatures that is their responsibility...to sign as one of the 70 complainants or endorsers is in effect becoming an accuser or complainant," he said.
He added that the "primary functions" of each member of the Justice Committee is to "sit and listen and judge."
"Is it our fault that the constitution provides for one-third endorsements so that the complaint may properly be referred to go to the Senate," he said.
Jaraula cited how the old Constitution the vote required is more than the stipulated than the one written in the 1987 Constitution.
He said this was reduced the required number of votes to only one-third of the members.
"Must we join them as accusers or complainants in the name of truth? But what truth are they referring to?" he said.
Jaraula said the pandemonium last Tuesday was "staged managed like a good movie only for actors".
He said the opposition "as if on cue they stood up and held up documents they claimed as election returns."
"But that has been the issue during the canvassing...is it our fault that their case has been dismissed by the Supreme Court that constituted itself as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal?," he said. "There is still a petition there but it refers only to the vice-presidential position and that is the only jurisdiction of the Tribunal.
Jaraula said what the opposition is doing is "appealing to the emotions."
"It is tragic that this country is being divided today by this process but it is the only forum provided for by our fundamental laws," he said.
Jaraula said it is also "tragic" that the opposition did not think earlier in filing the complaint.
He said the opposition was challenged for a week by no less than the President herself saying that they should not disrupt the political and economic situation of the country but to file their complaint in Congress but that the opposition did not do so.
"It took Senator Joker Arroyo to challenge them to file the complaint here. The Lozano complaint was filed June 27, the Lopez complaint was filed last July 4, and the amended complaint last July 25," he said.
"In other words the same people who are now challenging the members of this committee to be hiding the truth were the ones who were not willing to find the truth," he said.
Jaraula said the impeachment is the "secondary vehicle" of the opposition "having failed to get people to support their cause in the streets."
"Is truth equal to 79 votes? I wish constitution would only say only one vote is required but I was not one of the 48 who wrote the 1986 Constitution," he said. "They must respect the Constitution and not blame us for their failure to get the 79 signatures."
Jaraula said the impeachment is a political process and that all must respect the procedure provided for by the laws "if we want the truth."
He said in a complaint the respondents are "limited but even as they are limited they have rights and those rights are guaranteed by the Constitution."
"Must we waive them just so we can satisfy their lust for power, media mileage? What kind of truth? It is unfair to charge this committee or house for hiding the truth," he said.
Baculio for his part told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro that though he was inclined to sign the impeachment complaint for it to be transmitted to Congress, he has not yet done so.
"Objectionable na kaayo ang tanan (Everything that is going on is now highly objectionable)," he said. Baculio also stood up and took the stand during the Justice Committee yesterday and manifested how the other members of the committee should be requested to come back to attend the hearing.
He also quoted as his last words Marcus Aurelio saying: "What we do today will echo for all eternity."
The minority bloc walked out of the hearing Tuesday after committee chairman Representative Simeon Datumanong decided to terminate the debate on the prejudicial issues on the impeachment complaints and called for a vote as to whether the amended case should be declared a separate complaint from the first one filed by private lawyer Oliver Lozano.
Despite the absence of the minority congressmen, the committee voted 52 to 2 to declare the amended complaint as distinct from the Lozano case. (With reports from Sunnex)
(September 1, 2005 issue)
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