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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Legislators clash on which impeach rap to adopt
MANILA -- The hearing on the impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got bogged down again as the House justice committee failed Tuesday to resolve the issue as to which of three cases should be heard.
Opposition lawmakers questioned the impartiality of committee chairman Representative Simeon Datumanong, the President's former justice secretary, who is heading the proceedings.
At the start of the hearing, Representative Roilo Golez asked Datumanong to inhibit himself from presiding for "prejudging the case when he commented in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel that the amended complaint violates the Constitutional one-year bar rule and the wiretapped conversations of President Arroyo are not admissible in an impeachment court."
But Datumanong exercised his power as chair of the committee to defer the motions for inhibition and the playing of the videotape of his interview.
Lawyer Oliver Lozano, a known ally of deposed president Joseph Estrada, was the first to file an impeachment complaint against the President. The second complaint was lodged by lawyer Jose Rizalino Lopez, who is reportedly connected with a law firm being supervised by the Arroyo family. An amended complaint was also filed by congressmen belonging to the opposition and party-list groups.
The President's allies said the amendments should not be considered, calling them new complaints that violate the one-year ban.
Opposition lawmakers took turns defending the amended complaint.
House Minority Leader Francis Escudero said the one-year limit refers to initiating more than one impeachment proceeding, not a complaint.
"The three (impeachment) complaints can be heard in one proceeding as stated under the Impeachment Rules and the Rule of Law," Escudero said.
"More than anything else, this is a political process, and as the highest official of the land, the President owes us an explanation."
Opposition Representative Ronaldo Zamora said the proceedings were the President's main hope: "If she survives the stronger complaint, she can finally put the crisis behind her."
After more than three hours of debate, the hearing adjourned until Tuesday, when lawmakers are expected to vote on which complaint to consider.
In a press conference after the hearing, administration lawmakers said the opposition is banking on recycled charges of corruption because they realize that the wiretapped conversations, being the product of an illegal activity, cannot be introduced as evidence.
Opposition lawmakers, on the other hand, accused the majority of delaying the hearings by focusing on procedural issues such as which of the complaints to consider.
The opposition's impeachment spokesperson, Pateros Representative Allan Peter Cayetano, said that if the charges don't get a fair hearing, they would take their evidence to the public instead of the justice committee.
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Malacañang spokesman on the impeachment issue, insisted that Lozano's petition is the valid impeachment complaint against the President.
Macalintal said in a telephone interview that amending an impeachment complaint would be a circumvention of the Constitutional provision that prohibits double impeachment and would result in a never-ending string of changes.
He said the House of Representatives should look at Lozano's complaint, which was filed by a private citizen and endorsed by a congressman. He said a separate complaint filed by a congressman cannot piggyback on the private citizen's complaint.
Macalintal further said Lozano cannot withdraw his complaint because it would result in a dismissal. If that happens, he said there can be no more impeachment complaint against the President until after another year. (JFF/Manila Standard Today/Sunnex)
(August 17, 2005 issue)
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