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Thursday, August 24, 2006
House junks Arroyo impeachment case
MANILA (Updated 10:00 a.m.) -- Lawmakers overwhelmingly crushed the latest impeachment bid against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday after a marathon overnight session, although her opponents vowed not to abandon efforts to oust her.
By a vote of 173 to 32 with one abstention, the House plenary adopted the House justice committee report junking the impeachment complaint for being insufficient in substance. That blocked a potentially explosive trial in the Senate, an opposition stronghold, on allegations of vote-rigging, corruption, human rights abuses and violations of the Constitution.
The vote capped 18 hours of debates by the legislators that started at 4 p.m. Wednesday. House Speaker Jose de Venecia called the vote a victory for the Philippines, which has been constantly hamstrung by partisan politics since ousting dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and restoring democracy.
"What we have seen in the Philippines happen time and time again (is) this culture of boom and bust, when you see improvement in the economy but by our own hands we commit suicide and destroy these same gains that we're trying to achieve," he said in a speech.
Echoing earlier opposition allegations, Representative Rolex Suplico claimed Arroyo's administration had bought support with bribes and pork-barrel projects.
"Did the president violate her oath of office? The answer, my friends, is that we and the Filipino people will never know," Suplico said.
Opposition Representative Ronaldo Zamora urged Arroyo to publicly address the allegations against her.
"Talk to our people heart-to-heart," he said. "Answer the questions and put an end to a whole year of too many questions left unanswered and too many solutions that will do our country no good at all."
With little sign of mass protests that could lead to a "people power" revolt like those which have ousted two presidents, including Arroyo's predecessor, the next battleground appears to be local and congressional elections in May, which give the opposition a chance to break down the dominance of Arroyo allies in the House.
Arroyo took office in January 2001 and has four years left in the six-year term she won in 2004. She survived an initial impeachment bid last September, but the protests and coup rumors that have constantly dogged her have persisted. She declared a weeklong emergency in February after loyal generals quashed an alleged brewing coup.
Arroyo offered to reconcile with her opponents.
"As the impeachment curtain comes down, we hope that the opposition would now allow the country to close the final chapter of extreme partisanship and national division," Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said in a statement Wednesday. "Again, we ask our detractors to join us in the march for the unity, security and prosperity of the people."
Arroyo's son, Representative Juan Miguel Arroyo, vowed to avoid animosity.
"Believe me it's no joke to hear your good friends lambaste your mother on a daily basis. But let me assure them that I harbor no ill feeling toward them because this is part of a healthy democracy."
Opposition legislators spurned Arroyo's olive branch. They warned that dismissing the impeachment case without hearing the evidence would keep alive the debilitating political impasse that began with accusations that she conspired with an election commissioner and military commanders to rig the 2004 election that she won by a million votes.
Representative Rufino Biazon claimed that Arroyo risked destroying democratic institutions like the House, the elections commission and the military to conceal the truth and shield herself from impeachment.
"In her maneuvering to escape accountability, in her efforts to obstruct the opening of the boxes of evidence ... the damage to the institutions of Philippine society has been almost irreparable," he said.
During televised debate that began at 5 p.m. Wednesday, pro-Arroyo lawmakers portrayed the impeachment bid as a batch of opposition propaganda riddled with legal defects. Voting, with each legislator allocated three minutes to explain their reasoning, began at 2 a.m. and lasted eight hours.
Opposition legislators conceded that they did not have the numbers to send the case for trial by the Senate but pleaded to be allowed to present seven boxes of evidence.
"It has been shown that the impeachment process is simply politics and a numbers game ... and not a search for truth and accountability," said opposition Representative Erin Tanada. "That will be written in the tombstone of the impeachment complaint."
Last year, House members voted 158-51 to uphold a committee decision to dismiss the first case against Arroyo. The Constitution bars more than one impeachment complaint in a year.(AP/Sunnex)
Congress vote on impeach raps against President Arroyo
(August 24, 2006 issue)
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