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Saturday, August 27, 2005
2 more solons endorse impeach raps v. Arroyo
MANILA -- Two more congressmen signed Friday the amended impeachment complaint filed by the opposition and party-list legislators against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The new signatories are Laguna Representative Benjamin Agarao and Manila Fourth District Representative Rodolfo Bacani, an administration congressman.
Agarao and Bacani bring to 48 the number of endorsers of the impeachment complaint against Arroyo, which are still 31 signatures short of the 79 signatures needed to transmit the case to the Senate for trial.
The two congressmen followed 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, allies of the President in the Lower House but who still decided to sign the case.
Agarao said in a television interview that he signed the impeachment case because he could not take anymore the tactics being pulled by the House majority bloc "block and eventually kill the complaint against the President."
Like other endorsers of the complaint, he said he also wanted to know the truth behind the allegations against President Arroyo and this would be made possible in an impeachment court.
Agarao added that from the start, he never recognized Arroyo as a "legitimate President".
He said two other administration congressmen, Rodolfo Agbayani of Nueva Vizcaya and Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora, will also sign the opposition's amended complaint.
Last Thursday, House Majority Floor Leader Prospero Nograles said at least seven congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo have been holding "secret talks" with him "to see how they can withdraw their signatures."
Nograles said he will reveal their names "at the proper time."
He also said most congressmen are being turned off by the opposition tactics of insulting those who have not signed the impeachment complaint.
"The way they have chosen to reach their objective is less than civil. It is turning off a lot of our colleagues in the House," Nograles said.
He said the withdrawal of Alliance of Volunteer Educators (AVE) party-list Representative Eulogio Magsaysay as endorser of the impeachment complaint "is the first of a series of expected withdrawals from the opposition. "
"This is turning out to be what we have long expected. At the end of the day, it will be a numbers game," Nograles said.
He said he remains confident that the minority, "with all its braggadocio", will not get the required number of 79 signatures.
Magsaysay earlier said he withdrew his endorsement of the case because he realized that the impeachment hearing being conducted by the House of Representatives only causes the people to further suffer more difficulties.
He also believes that there is no probable cause to remove President Arroyo from office as stated in the complaint. He denied he was paid to retract.
But lawyers' group Codal spokesperson Neri Javier Colmenares said they see the hand of Malacañang in the recent withdrawal of Magsaysay as endorser of the impeachment case.
Colmenares said the claim of Magsaysay that he is withdrawing his signature because he lacks personal knowledge if President Arroyo indeed committed impeachable offenses is a weak attempt to justify his reversal of position.
"Congressman Magsaysay has personal knowledge of the act of bribing him to ensure that he will not sign the impeachment complaint against the President. This in itself constitutes an impeachable offense against President Arroyo and it is difficult to understand how Magsaysay can claim that he has no knowledge that the President committed anything wrong," he said.
As representative of educators who are expected to teach ethics and know right from wrong, Colmenares said the turnaround of Magsaysay "violates the principles and advocacies of his constituency". (JFF/Sunnex)
(August 27, 2005 issue)
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