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Thursday, August 25, 2005
House debates impeach raps prejudicial issue
MANILA -- Members of the House committee on justice argued lengthily Wednesday over whether the amended impeachment complaint filed by the opposition against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a separate and new case from that filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano.
Alliance of Volunteers Educators (AVE) party-list Representative Eulogio Magsaysay, who is one of the endorsers of the amended impeachment complaint against Arroyo, withdrew his endorsement of the case.
Magsaysay said he retracted when he realized that nothing is happening to the complaint. However, he added, ordinary people suffer from difficulties due to the "lengthy and tiring" discussion in the House of Representatives on the matter.
After studying the case, he said he now believes there is no probable cause to remove President Arroyo from her office. He admitted that he committed a mistake when he signed the impeachment complaint without looking at it further.
Although he admitted there were attempts to bribe him in order not to support the impeachment complaint, Magsaysay said no one paid him to withdraw.
He said he would identify his colleagues in the Lower House who offered him P300,000 in exchange for non-support of the impeachment case if called before the House ethics committee. He also announced that there would be three more endorsers of the amended impeachment complaint who will withdraw their signatures from the case.
Magsaysay's withdrawal of signature came a day after five administration congressmen signed the amended impeachment complaint against President Arroyo.
The five congressmen were Representatives Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, Robert Barbers Jr. of Surigao del Sur, Edmund Reyes of Marinduque, Robert Jaworski Jr. of Pasig City, and Renato Magtubo of the party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa.
Remulla is the chairman of the House committee on public information, Barbers is the chairman of the House committee on accounts, and Reyes is the chairman of the House committee on education.
Barbers said they wanted to give the President a chance to answer and refute the charges in the impeachment court. He believed that some of their colleagues in the majority bloc would follow them.
In Wednesday's hearing, the administration congressmen maintained that the House justice panel should only tackle the Lozano complaint and treat the amended one as a separate and new case while those from the opposition wanted to consolidate the two cases and proceed with the determination of their sufficiency in form and substance.
Ilocos Sur Representative Salacnib Baterina said the Lozano complaint should be the only case to be heard by the committee because the amended one could not be considered as amended but a production of new cases.
Baterina cited charges on violations of human rights and the botched Manila airport deal in the amended complaint as new cases as he said: "We cannot amend by adding new or separate courses of action."
He said the panel should respect the one-year bar rule in the 1987 Constitution, which protects the rights of the accused, President Arroyo in this case, from possible harassment if she would answer more than one complaint.
Baguio City Representative Mauricio Domogan said the opposition should be blamed if the amended complaint would be dismissed because they preferred to adopt the rules used during the 11th Congress, which does not have a provision that will address the amended complaint.
Domogan said the committee has no choice but to implement the provisions of the 1987 Constitution in looking into the complaint.
Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte said the opposition just called their complaint as amended to evade the one-year bar rule of the 1987 Constitution but the validity of the amendment is not to be determined by caption, title of the complaint and prayer to the complaint.
Villafuerte cited the second impeachment case against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Hilario Davide three years ago, which was signed by one-third of the House members but was dismissed by the high court because it was violative of the 1987 Constitution.
He criticized the opposition for charging President Arroyo with cases that were committed prior to her term. He said the airport deal came about during the Ramos administration and was amended during the Estrada regime.
Also, he said the President could not be directly accountable for political killings and human rights violations perpetrated by some soldiers and policemen as indicated in the amended complaint.
He said: "We are not hiding the truth but we are just evading lies."
Zamboanga del Sur Representative Isidro Real Jr. asked the committee to protect the President from the impeachment complaint as guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution.
Bacolod City Representative Monico Puentevella, for his part, said the congressmen belonging to the majority are with the opposition in finding the truth but "let us not ruin the law because we are lawmakers and not lawbreakers."
Puentevella said the law may be harsh but it should prevail over the issue like the impeachment complaint against the President because everybody is entitled to be protected by the fundamental law of the land.
Quezon City Representative Matias Defensor Jr. dismissed allegations of the opposition that the majority congressmen in the Lower House are relying on the technicalities to save President Arroyo.
Defensor said the debate on which of two complaints filed against the President should be tackled by the panel is not a technical but jurisdictional issue that should be resolved to protect the integrity of the impeachment process.
From the opposition, San Juan Representative Ronaldo Zamora said there is no provision provided for in the 1987 Constitution that prohibits the filing of an amended impeachment complaint.
Zamora said the impeachment proceeding under the law is a criminal procedure wherein the rules of prosecution may be applied. He said the House justice panel, in hearing the impeachment case against President Arroyo, plays as the prosecution, which under the Rules of Criminal Procedures of the Rules of Court allow amendments in the cases against an accused.
He said the committee should let the President answer the allegations not by technicality but by substantiality.
"Allow us to lay down the charges of the people, allow the President to answer and refute the charges and allow us to move on and put an end to the political crisis," he appealed to the panel.
Negros Oriental Representative Jacinto Paras asked the committee to merge the Lozano complaint with the amended one since the subject matter and respondent in the case are one.
Akbayan party-list Representative Loretta Rosales said although there is no law that accommodates the amended complaint but there is also no law that prohibits it.
Rosales asked her colleagues not "to look for every way to kill the impeachment complaint in the House justice committee but let the case to be brought to the impeachment court, which is the Senate for trial so that the people would know the truth behind the allegations against the President."
Iloilo Representative Rolex Suplico said the "prejudicial" questions and the motion to strike filed by President Arroyo's allies are prohibited under the rules on impeachment which states that upon the referral, the panel should determine the sufficiency in form and substance of the complaint.
Suplico asked the panel to consolidate the Lozano and amended complaints into one and give the President a chance to answer the charges in the impeachment court and not in the House justice committee.
Cebu Representative Clavel Martinez criticized the "apparent mode in the panel to kill the impeachment case against President Arroyo."
Gabriela party-list Representative Liza Maza said the President allies in the panel do not want to talk about the amended complaint because they do not want to talk about evidence on "alleged human rights violations and corruption in the Arroyo Government."
Maza said the dismissal of the amended complaint is "meant to kill the truth" and they would not allow it. (JFF/Sunnex)
(August 25, 2005 issue)
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