Solons denounce plot to kill impeach bid today

First posted 01:09am (Mla time) Aug 30, 2005
By Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer News Service

DISGRUNTLED lawmakers of the ruling coalition yesterday announced an alleged Malacañang plot -- supposedly to be carried out today -- to kill the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

But House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles dismissed the claim. He said that opposition forces had no one to blame but themselves, saying they had not come up with the 79 votes needed to send the complaint to the Senate for trial. The complaint, which centers on claims Ms Arroyo rigged last year’s election, only has 48 signatures.

“It’s muerto natural (natural death),” said Nograles.

Representative Rodolfo Bacani of Manila confirmed earlier reports that Ms Arroyo’s allies would throw out the complaint before the President’s departure in mid-September for the Summit of Leaders in New York marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations.

Officials have said Ms Arroyo does not wish to carry with her to New York the embarrassment of an “impeachment baggage.” the majority will kill the impeachment complaint on a technicality. I know this because I am a member of the majority,” said the Liberal Party lawmaker and brother of Bishop Teodoro Bacani.

Nograles said the House justice committee would cast a make-or-break vote in the next two days on two prejudicial questions -- constitutional issues that must first be resolved before the panel could proceed to determine if the complaint is sufficient in form and substance worthy of a Senate trial.

To be put to a vote today is the question: “Is the amended impeachment complaint a separate and distinct complaint?”

The second question, “Does the Lozano impeachment complaint bar the filing of the two other complaints?” will be tackled tomorrow.

Nograles said the opposition was running out of arguments and Congress could not debate during its entire 60-day session this year. “The time to vote has come,” he said. “We’re tired.”

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye denied that Malacañang was plotting to kill the impeachment process. “If they don’t have the 79 (votes), well, that’s the end of it in the House,” he said.

Lawmakers have said Ms Arroyo’s allies are prepared to consider only the first complaint filed by a private lawyer, Oliver Lozano.

Regarded as the weakest of three complaints, the Lozano pleading is based on a wiretapped telephone conversation between Ms Arroyo and former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Lozano charged that Ms Arroyo’s admission that she talked with an election official during the balloting constituted betrayal of public trust.

The subsequent impeachment complaints included allegations of bribery, graft and corruption and culpable violation of the Constitution.

Ms Arroyo has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, insisting she won the balloting “fair and square.”

Good as dead

“If the majority wants the process to continue, they should entertain the amended complaint or allow the consolidation of the three complaints,” said Representative Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte.

Should the majority decide to vote in support of the Lozano complaint, “then the whole process is good as dead,” said Barbers, an Arroyo ally who joined the opposition initiative last week.

“If we want to survive this, the House has to send to the Senate a stronger complaint -- either the amended case or a consolidation of the three,” said Barbers.

“For me, the plan to kill the complaint amounts to deception of the people and would render the offer from the administration to resolve the issue through the legal process a dirty ploy,” Bacani said.

“We must give President Arroyo a chance to face the charges against her, prove her innocence in a fair and genuine trial because this is the only remaining legal process for truth to come out,” said Bacani. He stressed that he was against calls for the resignation of the President.

In the midst of the apparent Palace juggernaut in Congress, another lawmaker joined Ms Arroyo’s ranks.

Cagayan Representative Florencio Vargas wrote a letter to Senate President Franklin Drilon resigning from the Liberal Party.

Vargas said the party had decided to support impeachment. “Unfortunately for me, I cannot do so,” he said.

“I believe that under the circumstances, the better, rather than the worse, situation for the country is to keep the status quo in the top leadership of the land,” he said.

On the eve of the crucial vote in Congress, actress Susan Roces called on administration lawmakers “not to obstruct the search for truth.”

“The issues concern the entire nation. I think when the interest of the nation is at stake there should be no room for partisan politics,” said the widow of the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr.

As the worst political crisis to engulf the 4-year-old Arroyo presidency comes to a head, the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a pastoral letter calling on the faithful to join a “Day of Conversion, Reparation and Consecration” on Sept. 12, the feast day of the Virgin Mary.

“Let us not forget that in many moments of our nation’s history, She has graciously favored us with unity and spiritual courage in the midst of our crisis,” said the letter by Archbishop Fernando Capalla, the CBCP president.

‘Let truth come out’

In an interview with the Inquirer, Bishop Antonio Tobias of Novaliches recalled the CBCP position in July that shied away from calling for Ms Arroyo’s resignation but declared that she should not dismiss demands that she step aside.

Tobias said Ms Arroyo appeared to be ignoring the CBCP’s plea, pointing out that her allies were out to quash the impeachment complaint.

“If they won’t allow the truth to come out in the impeachment, the people will use the other venues available to them, such as taking to the streets,” said Tobias, convenor of the Inter-Faith Movement for Truth, Justice and Genuine Change. The movement is calling for Ms Arroyo’s resignation.

Tobias urged parish priests, religious communities, lay leaders, organizations and movements under the Diocese of Novaliches to participate in a Mass for the Nation at St. Peter Church this morning. He said they should join “the collective expression of the people’s vigilance.”

Leftwing and moderate groups have announced they would mount demonstrations to support the impeachment process.

Joining the protest today is a group of concerned administrators, faculty members, professionals, staff and students of Ateneo de Manila University.

In a statement, the group called on the House committee to “let the truth emerge” to facilitate “a peaceful and constitutional resolution of the present crisis and stalemate.”

With reports from Philip C. Tubeza, Christine O. Avendaño, Leila B. Salavarria and Norman Bordadora