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Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Pro-Arroyo solons lead in House vote on impeach raps
MANILA (Updated 2:08 p.m.) -- After debating overnight, weary members of the House of Representatives began voting early Tuesday on the report of the committee on justice dismissing the impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
As of 2 p.m., 141 congressmen voted in favor of the committee report junking all three impeachment complaints against Arroyo and 46 voted against it. Four congressmen have abstained.
The voting continues as the opposition warned that dropping the charges could worsen the political crisis in the country and possibly trigger a new "People Power" revolt.
A protest march led by former President Corazon Aquino and Susan Roces, widow of the late former opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. has started making its way to the House as they pressed for Arroyo's impeachment.
Aquino and Roces are joined by politicians and supporters from various sectors of society.
However, anti-riot policemen positioned about ten meters from the House of Representatives blocked their entry.
As of this posting, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay is talking with police officials to negotiate for their entry to the Batasan Pambansa.
The 236-seat Lower House - overwhelmingly dominated by pro-Arroyo legislators - appeared headed to uphold a justice committee's decision to throw out all three impeachment complaints against her.
Under the law, a third or 79 members of the powerful House could overturn the committee decision and impeach Arroyo but pro-impeachment lawmakers acknowledged they don't have the number.
Arroyo, a US-trained economist, is accused of rigging last year's election, and of bribery, widespread corruption, human rights violations and other crimes. She has denied wrongdoing and refused to resign.
Arroyo's opponents say the impeachment process was the last legal avenue to press her to answer to the charges and close the political crisis.
Even moderate lawmakers have warned that suppressing the charges against Arroyo in Congress could spark another "people power" revolt like those that ousted two presidents in the past two decades - or inspire the ever-restive military to intervene.
"This is the last chance for us to pave the rule of law and the constitutional process," said opposition spokesman Representative Alan Peter Cayetano.
"We're saying we can't stop the people," he said. "As far as we opposition congressmen are concerned, we've done our job but what happens after that is beyond us."
Press secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye criticized such warnings. "For as long as the congressional process is free, fair and transparent, people are expected to abide by the results," he said.
"To threaten our people with doomsday scenarios is an insult to our people and their political maturity," he added.
Metropolitan Manila police chief Vidal Querol said the capital's 16,000-strong police force was placed on full alert indefinitely starting late Sunday to safeguard law and order during this week's protests.
Anti-Arroyo protesters clashed with riot police last week, injuring 26 people.
Lawmakers from both camps used fiery rhetoric to explain their vote during the nationally televised event - some spicing up their speeches with quotes from the Bible, Shakespeare, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I will never sell my soul to the devil," said Representative Robert "Ace" Barbers, alluding to allegations that Arroyo's camp offered money and government posts to get favorable votes from Congress.
Barbers said he would never accept such a bribe, citing a Shakespeare line in Juliet Caesar: "Let the Gods so speed me as I love the name of honor more than I fear death."
Representative Henedina Abad, who also backed efforts to impeach Arroyo, quoted Suu Kyi to encourage her pro-Arroyo colleagues to back off from her. "It is not power that corrupts but the fear of losing power," she said. "Let history judge as kindly, reject the committee report."
A religious lawmaker, Representative Bienvenido Abante Jr., loudly read passages from the Bible to warn anti-Arroyo legislators threatening to go the streets that they will be harshly judged by God.
But Representative Crispin Beltran, a left-wing labor leader who dumped Arroyo, firmly proclaimed: "Let's see each other in the streets."(AP/Sunnex)
(Reposted with updates)
(September 6, 2005 issue)
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