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Thursday, September 01, 2005
All impeach complaints get deathblow
MANILA -- With the opposition boycotting, the House committee on justice voted Wednesday to quash all impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The move appeared to be a deathblow to the opposition's legal effort to oust Arroyo over allegations that she rigged last year's election by conspiring with a former elections commissioner.
The committee ruled that the remaining complaint filed by private lawyer Oliver Lozano, alleging the President betrayed public trust through electoral fraud, was sufficient in form but lacking in "substance".
A complaint must be found sufficient in both form and substance for it to prosper.
The committee earlier threw out the two other impeachment complaints, including one sponsored by the political opposition that also accused the President of corruption and human rights violations.
The only chance for the opposition to resurrect their complaint would be to muster the 79 signatures needed to send it directly to the Senate, for trial.
Earlier Wednesday, Marinduque Representative Edmund Reyes made a last-ditch attempt to convince his colleagues to vote for the amended version, which expands the Lozano complaint to include other charges.
In a speech at the House during resumption of the impeachment hearing, Reyes declared that the amended complaint had 73 signatures, six short of the required 79.
He said at least 23 more lawmakers committed to endorse the amended complaint on top of the 50 signatures recorded at the House secretary general's office.
Reyes presented to the committee two envelopes-one containing blank endorsements and the other, the names of the 23 endorsers.
"This brings our total number to 73 signatures or commitments to sign," he said.
"For the truth to come out, the Filipino people need six more members of this House to endorse the complaint. Just six more," he said.
"Is there anyone else? Is there no one else? Is there any one else who will sign for the truth?" the lawmaker asked.
Reyes, who was designated by the pro-impeachment lawmakers to represent them in the hearing, appealed to the committee to consolidate all the complaints against the President.
His plea apparently failed to move his colleagues.
The committee vote culminated two rancorous days, starting with a walkout Tuesday by opposition members, who claimed the case was being killed unfairly on the strength of the Arroyo administration's dominance in the House.
Pro-Arroyo lawmakers broke into applause after the 49-1 vote on the question whether Lozano's complaint was sufficient in substance.
"I hope the public will receive it favorably," pro-Arroyo Representative Rodolfo Antonino said. "If the opposition claims that this was railroaded, it was not railroaded. They were the ones who walked out."
The President's critics had threatened to launch the country's third "people power" revolt if the case is halted without being heard.
It was unclear whether the opposition has the clout to generate the size of street protests that forced our dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in 2001.
Opposition spokesman Representative Francis Escudero said the impeachment charges are now on "life support," adding: "Our country is now on life support because the issues would not be foreclosed."
Arroyo's allies first voted to exclude two of three impeachment complaints, including one crafted by the opposition accusing her of three major offenses, including betrayal of the public trust.
That left the original Lozano complaint, which is widely considered to be the weakest-and which the opposition claims was crafted two months ago by Arroyo allies as a safeguard against possible impeachment.
After rejecting suggestions that the complaint was legally faulty, the committee voted that it could it not be pursued legally, in part due to the fact that it would require the use of illegal wiretaps as evidence.
A private lawyer, Ernesto Francisco, filed a petition Wednesday asking the Supreme Court to stop the justice committee from continuing with the hearing. He said all the complaints should be heard, and none barred. (AP/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(September 1, 2005 issue)
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