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Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Lawyer recycles impeachment case
Lawyer Oliver Lozano refiled his impeachment complaint against President Arroyo yesterday, the first day of the resumption of sessions of Congress.
Lozano decided to file the 55-page impeachment complaint, which the House of Representatives had rejected last year, despite calls from the members of the opposition asking him to withhold it.
The minority had asked the lawyer not to hastily file the complaint since the one-year ban remains in effect and will only be lifted by July 26 or one year after the first complaint against the President was referred to the House committee on justice.
Members of the minority held a meeting yesterday at the Sulu hotel in Quezon City and Lozano claimed that he went there to consult them regarding his position.
Ignored
He said he waited for them to ask him to join the meeting but he was just ignored. And since he had been excluded from the meeting, and at the same time felt insulted, he decided not to confer with them anymore and instead proceeded to Batasan Pambansa to file his complaint.
The President had survived an impeachment after the House of Representatives voted last September against the complaint that accused her of cheating in the 2004 elections.
Last week, Lozano said he was willing to defer the filing of his complaint pending results of his expected meeting with members of the opposition.
Before filing the complaint, Lozano said he had clearly explained to House Minority Leader Francis Escudero that he would not violate the one-year ban on impeachment if he would proceed with the filing.
This, he added, was shown by a previous Supreme Court ruling, which said the prohibition was on the “multiple initiation of an impeachment proceedings” and not the filing of the case.
House Secretary General Roberto Nazareno said Lozano refiled the same impeachment case he lodged against the President last year. He received the complaint at 11:16 a.m.
Nazareno said the resolutions of endorsement or signatories, however, were the same as last year. Although he had already received the complaint, Nazareno said he would inquire from the House committee on rules what to do about what he said was “a defective complaint.”
And while Lozano still proceeded with his plan, opposition legislators expressed dismayed with the lawyer’s decision.
They threatened, though, charges against Lozano for using their signatures when he hastily filed the complaint against Arroyo.
Lozano explained that the early filing of the complaint “is not premature” as claimed by some sectors, because “it (impeachment procedure) does not state that no complaint can be filed within a period of one year from the filing of the first complaint.”
He also said he was just doing so to stop the rumored coup being plotted against the Arroyo administration. And to stop this continued unrest, it would be better for Congress to finally resolve the accusations of cheating, lying, and stealing against the President through legal means.
The complaint Lozano filed was just a photocopy of the amended complaint that the opposition had filed last year.
The complaint, prepared by Roque and Butuyan Law Offices, also contains the signatures of the 28 opposition congressmen who endorsed the complaint when it was filed last year.
Studying charges
Escudero, in an interview, said the opposition was dismayed with the move taken by Lozano.
He also insisted that Lozano cannot use the signatures of those who endorsed the 2005 complaint.
“Our lawyers are studying what charges to file against him,” Escudero added.
At the same time, the minority leader said his colleagues are studying the possibility of endorsing some amendments in the Rules of Procedures Governing Impeachment. (Sunnex)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 17, 2006 issue)
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