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Thursday, August 10, 2006
House body: Impeach case 'sufficient in form'
MANILA -- The House committee on justice declared late Wednesday afternoon that the impeachment complaint filed by the Black and White Movement (BWM) against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is "sufficient in form."
The committee, chaired by Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong, is expected to tackle on Tuesday next week if the case is also "sufficient in substance."
If sufficient in substance, the impeachment complaint then goes to the plenary for deliberation and action.
The committee had voted 54 to 24 to dismiss the first seven impeachment complaints filed against Arroyo by various groups and private individuals "since they were filed prematurely or filed within the one-year bar period."
On the second day Wednesday of the impeachment proceedings, administration congressmen who have supposedly received a portion of the controversial fertilizer funds continued attending the ongoing impeachment proceedings, despite a call by opposition legislators for them to inhibit themselves.
Opposition Parañaque City Representative Roilo Golez reiterated his call for the inhibition of congressmen whose districts have appeared in the list of the Commission on Audit (COA) as having received fertilizer funds.
Golez said the inhibition of the congressmen, who are members of the House justice committee, would make the impeachment proceedings against the President "credible". He cited conflict of interest as reason why those congressmen should excuse themselves from the proceedings.
But Datumanong reiterated his earlier ruling that he has no power to compel members to inhibit themselves because they were the recipients of the funds.
Golez however was so persistent in his call that Datumanong decided to have the issue put into voting. Forty-three congressmen upheld the ruling of Datumanong that he has no power to compel members to inhibit themselves from the hearing while 22 congressmen supported the position of Golez.
During the explanation of votes, administration Representative Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur immediately turned the tables on members of the opposition by claiming there were also members of the minority whose districts have also benefited from the controversial funds.
In fact, he added, three of the four endorsers of the impeachment complaint were included in the list of those who received the funds.
Based on the COA report submitted to the committee by Villafuerte, it showed that districts being represented by Nereus Acosta of Bukidnon, Rafael Mamba of Cagayan, and Henedina Abad of Batanes were named as recipients of the fertilizer funds.
Villafuerte said if administration congressmen who received the fertilizer funds would inhibit themselves from the proceedings, then the endorsers are also expected not to participate.
"The COA report included the names of complaint endorsers Acosta, Mamba, and former education secretary Abad, whose wife is now the representative of Batanes. If we accept your motion, then it means that if your name is in the list then there is a conflict of interest to be avoided. Does this mean that the endorsers should also inhibit themselves since their names were in the list," he said.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, meanwhile, that Malacañang "would wish that this (impeachment) complaint be dismissed" because it is "against the interest of the national leadership and the President."
However, Ermita was quick to add that the Palace has not forged an agreement with the House leadership, particularly with Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong, chairman of the House justice committee, to railroad the impeachment process.
He said he just happened to chance upon Maguindanao officials led by Governor Andal Ampatuan and Datumanong in a meeting in the Palace and they fell to discussing how long the impeachment process would last.
He said it's the right of the opposition to push for the impeachment of President Arroyo no matter how many times they get rebuffed.
"We are not saying for them to retreat from whatever course of action they want to do. Fair game, politics, democracy so I think we just have to go through this process," he said.
He said the impeachment complaint is the House's "baby" and "we have nothing to do with it." He said Malacañang is relying on the "intellect and wisdom" of the members of the House committee on justice, adding that the administration has the majority in the House of Representatives.
He said Malacañang's confidence that the impeachment complaint will not prosper is based on the fact that it is backed up by legal procedures and rules of Congress.
"An ordinary person can see that they just don't have the numbers to be able to pursue their case," he said. (DBP/JMR/Sunnex)
(August 10, 2006 issue)
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