Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Another impeach complaint against Arroyo
MANILA -- Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. led 16 others Tuesday in filing another impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before the House of Representatives.
The complaint is basically the same as the one filed last Monday by more than 200 individuals who compose civil society and militant groups.
What made the second impeachment complaint different from the one filed on Monday is the list of complainants.
Lawyer Neri Colmenares of the Counsels for Defense of Liberties (Codal) said Guingona's complaint is part of a series of impeachment complaints against the President.
Colmenares said the party-list group Akbayan will be filing Wednesday a separate impeachment complaint, which will be endorsed by Akbayan Representatives Loretta Ann Rosales, Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, and Mario Aguja.
He also said members of the Jesus Is Lord (JIL) movement of evangelist Eduardo "Bro. Eddie" Villanueva are scheduled to troop to Congress starting July 3 to "intervene" in the complaint filed last Monday.
But instead of focusing on another impeachment case against the President, legislators should just continue working and serving the people, said Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
She said now is not the right time to "advance political agenda" and that the new impeachment case is "an exercise in futility that will only add to the divisiveness that we are seeing now."
"Don't they have better things to do with their lives? Is this the best way they can serve the public?" Garcia said.
Guingona's son, opposition Representative Teofisto "TG" Guingona III of Bukidnon, is the lone endorser of the complaint filed by his father, which House Secretary-General Roberto Nazareno received at 9:05 a.m. Tuesday.
Representing the group Citizens Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA), Guingona said he is filing the complaint as a concerned citizen who felt "aggrieved" by the alleged illegal actions of the President.
He pointed out Arroyo's alleged failure to act on the string of killings of activists and journalists, which, according to him, constitute human rights violations.
He said filed a separate complaint to prevent any technicality on when the one-year prohibition against the filing of a new complaint against the President ended. (Sunnex/MBG of Sun.Star Cebu)
(June 28, 2006 issue)
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