House strikes out impeachment vs Arroyo
by CARMELA FONBUENA, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 12/02/2008 11:52 PM
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The House of Representatives, in plenary session, overwhelmingly sustained the decision of the House justice committee that the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is “insufficient in substance.”
A total of 183 representatives voted "yes" to the House justice committee report recommending dismissal of the complaint while only 21 voted "no." Three abstained.
The final vote of the House of Representatives makes Arroyo safe from impeachment for another year since the Constitution bars more than one complaint per year. This is the fourth impeachment move against her since 2005.
It was probably the last one against Arroyo since she will have only eight months left in her term in case another complaint is filed in October 2009 after the one-year ban lapses. Some opposition leaders have said it would be useless to file another complaint next year since it would be too close already to the 2010 election period.
The session started at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. It took four hours for House committee on justice chairman Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor to present the report and the pro-impeachment congressmen to interpellate him. Voting started at 21:00, Tuesday and lasted up to 00:49, Wednesday.
With the plenary vote, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said "the impeachment complaint against Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is hereby dismissed."
The pro-impeachment congressmen argued to the hilt, but they didn’t get near the necessary one-third vote of the 238-member House of Representatives—or 80 votes—to overturn the committee ruling.
'Let GMA Finish her Term'
In explaining her "yes" vote to the justice committee report, Laguna Rep. Maria Evita Arago of the Liberal Party said the President has only 17 months in office. "Let her finish her term," she said.
Masbate Rep. Antonio Kho, in voting "yes," said it "may not be anymore practical and necessary" to pursue the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo. He said the global financial crisis that will "exacerbate poverty of our already impoverished and sufering people."
Besides, the complaints "can be pursued after her time expires in 2010," he added.
Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella accused former Arroyo ally, House Speaker Jose de Venecia of being a liar while Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte criticized De Venecia's son, Jose III, one of the citizens who filed the complaint, of cornering government projects.
Opposition Fight to the End
Bayan Muna representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano, and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez alternated in interpellating committee on justice chair Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor.
The pro-impeachment congressmen argued that they have complied with the requirements on sufficiency in substance and reiterated their arguments in the committee hearings.
But Defensor maintained that the evidence they presented were “hearsay… with no probative value.”
“Impeachment, as many would say, is a question of numbers. True. Nonetheless, a more relevant question is, how do you achieve the numbers? To say that personal loyalties and partisan considerations are the bases to achieve the numbers is to simplify the issue beyond recognition,” he said in his report to the plenary.
Minority leader Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, in explaining his vote, reiterated his argument that they have complied with the necessary requirements to declare the impeachment complaint “sufficient in substance.”
“Is this the way to treat a serious impeachment complaint?” Zamora told the committee.
After explaining his vote, Zamora left the plenary with about ten congressmen from the minority. Before leaving, they informed the House secretary-general of their “No” vote and indicated that they won’t explain their votes anymore.
They listened to the explanations of their fellow congressmen’s votes in the coffee shop adjacent to the plenary hall.
“The reason the complaints keep coming back is because there’s no accountability from the highest official of the land. There is only impunity,” Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros said in explaining her “No” vote.
"There are more than sufficient grounds for the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo," Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan also said.
Misplaced precedence?
During the interpellations, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño criticized the misplaced “precedence” in the justice committee report.
“We have put precedence in the committee report that practically renders the President immune in the future,” he told the plenary.
Before the House plenary session started, Casiño told reporters about his concerns.
“The most shocking ruling is the one that dismisses the NBN-ZTE, “Hello, Garci,” human rights fertilizer scam, and Northrail charges on the principle of res judicata citing as bases the House rulings on the 2005 and 2007 complaints filed by lawyers Oliver Lozano and Roel Pulido,” he said.
Res judicata is similar to rule of double jeopardy. The committee report called the accusations “rehashed.” The Lozano and the Pulido complaints were criticized by the opposition as “sham” complaints, meant to protect President Arroyo from serious complaints. The two were dismissed for insufficiency in substance.
“This implies that a President can insulate herself forever from impeachment by having allies file weak complaints, having it dismissed on technicalities, and then use it to dismiss future complaints,” Casino added.
Tañada boycotts
Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III opted to boycott the proceedings.
“After having witnessed and participated in three impeachment proceedings, it is my humble opinion that no sitting President, present of future, will ever be impeached by the House of Representatives through proceedings in the committee on justice. The only avenue left for a sitting or future President to be impeached is through the 'fast-track' model, that is, if one-third of the representatives affix their signatures as endorsers of the impeachment complaint or vote against the committee report dismissing the impeachment complaint, which seems to be an impossibility nowadays when this or any President in the future commands tremendous power and influence,” he explained.
He also boycotted the impeachment hearings of the House committee on justice.
“I can feel our youth’s disenchantment with political institutions and their sense of helplessness and hopelessness. We may pat ourselves in the back and be proud of what we accomplished today. I feel we just proved to the youth of the land that we the House of Representatives have failed to inspire them to love our country more beyond self and beyond party affiliation,” Tañada added.
‘MOA-AD should have been included’
Makati City Rep. Teodoro Locsin said the complaint “deserves to be trash” if only for the “fatal omission of the high crime of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain...[where] we came close to losing a part of our country.” He voted "yes."
The Moro homeland accord that the government peace negotiators signed with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was declared by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
Locsin hit on the proponents of the impeachment complaint for “legitimizing” the Moro homeland accord “by its exclusion” in the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo.
Political analysit Manuel “Manolo” Quezon III filed a complaint-in-intervention seeking to add the Moro homeland accord as a ground in the impeachment complaint but it was barred by the House justice committee.
All other raps filed after Joey De Venecia and civil society groups filed the complaint in October “were all dismissed for lack of jurisdiction" since the Constitution states that “no impeachment proceeding shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year." -- with a report from WILLARD CHENG, ABS-CBN News
as of 12/03/2008 1:02 AM
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