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Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Swift approval of Arroyo impeachment rules sought
MANILA -- Speaker Jose de Venecia urged lawmakers Tuesday night to approve the rules governing the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to pave the way for hearings in the House committee on justice.
"This will be the highest political priority in the House," De Venecia said, as he urged congressmen not to prolong plenary debates that began last night. "We want to rush approval of the rules. We don't want to delay the hearings."
The Speaker issued this call after majority and minority representatives in the committee on rules clashed over a provision that would enable the opposition to send the impeachment complaint directly to the Senate for trial once it gathered the required 79 signatures, representing one-third of the House membership.
The amended complaint, filed Monday, had only 42 signatures.
Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong, chairman House committee on justice, said the plenary must first approve the impeachment rules before his committee act on the case.
De Venecia forwarded Monday to Datumanong's committee the amended impeachment complaint against President Arroyo.
'Creeping impeachment'
Administration allies rejected "creeping impeachment," which would end justice committee hearings the moment the required votes are reached, allowing the plenary to endorse the complaint to the Senate for trial.
Datumanong said his committee will not allow an "express delivery" of the amended impeachment complaint to the Senate for trial unless the required number of 79 signatures is satisfied.
The two sides also clashed on whether the President would be summoned to defend herself, and how many days the justice committee would be given to rule on the impeachment complaint.
The House justice committee is tasked to determine if the complaints against the President are sufficient in form and in substance and will send its recommendation to the plenary for a vote within 60 days.
If the committee rejects the complaints, Datumanong said the opposition could still override the decision once they are able to collect the 79 required signatures in order bring the impeachment complaint to the Senate.
Last Monday, 42 congressmen belonging to the opposition, party-list representatives and the Liberal Party (LP) filed an amended impeachment case against the President. The revised complaint will be merged with the one earlier filed by Attorney Oliver Lozano last month.
In the Palace, Presidential Spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said the President was unfazed by the amended complaint against her, but her lawyers have yet to say whether they would oppose it.
Bunye said it was still unclear whether the amended complaint would be declared by the House justice committee to be sufficient in form and substance, and therefore valid in the absence of a new set of impeachment rules.
"There are no rules on impeachment yet but I believe that in due time that will be clarified," he said.
Once the impeachment rules are decided and approved in plenary session, the complaint goes to the justice committee for scrutiny of evidence. The Constitution says the committee must decide within 60 session days on the complaint's merit, but the opposition wants this cut to 20 session days in the rules.
'Tooth and nail'
In a news conference Tuesday, House Deputy Minority Leaders Alan Peter Cayetano, Rolex Suplico and Ilocos Norte Representative Imee Marcos said the minority would fight "tooth and nail" to keep the majority bloc from killing the impeachment process.
While the opposition mustered only 42 votes on Monday, Marcos claimed they had already gathered 67, but refused to say who the new signatories were.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, however, dismissed the opposition claims.
"If they cannot get the numbers now, it would be more difficult for them to get the numbers later," he said.
In Tuesday's committee debate, the President's staunches allies, Eastern Samar Representative Marcelino Libanan and Nueva Ecija Representative Rodolfo Antonino said they wanted the justice committee to finish its hearings regardless of the vote count.
But Cayetano and Suplico maintained that the same 79-vote rule applied during the impeachment of deposed President Joseph Estrada and should be applied to Ms. Arroyo.
Marcos, for her part, said Ms. Arroyo could appear before the justice committee in the same way that US President Bill Clinton did at his impeachment hearings, by teleconference.
Ms. Arroyo is the second president in five years to face impeachment. The complaint filed Monday alleges she "cheated and lied" to obtain and hold power and could be impeached on four grounds.
The President has denied manipulating the May 2004 poll by discussing vote-counting with an election official before she was declared the winner. She has said she is ready to face an impeachment trial to clear her name. (JFF/Manila Standard Today/Sunnex)
Related links:
Sona 2005
Sona 2004
Sona 2003
Sona 2002
Sona 2001
(July 27, 2005 issue)
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Senators out to kill Cha-cha