House opposition walks out
By Jess Diaz
The Philippine Star 08/31/2005

Pandemonium broke loose in the House of Representatives late yesterday afternoon as impeachment petitioners and endorsers walked out on their colleagues in the committee on justice before the panel could take a vote on their amended complaint seeking the removal of President Arroyo.

The walkout was prompted by what opposition congressmen described as a clear attempt on the part of administration allies to kill their charges of "lying, cheating and stealing" against the embattled President.

Pro-impeachment lawmakers filed out of the session hall where the justice committee was holding its hearing seconds after Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, committee chairman, obstinately ignored their collective calls for the panel to adjourn its session instead of voting on the amended petition today.

The committee later convened again without representatives from the minority and proceeded to vote on the first of two "prejudicial questions."

The first is whether the opposition’s charges against the President constitute a separate and distinct complaint. The committee’s decision: it is a complaint that is separate from the original petition filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, who had accepted the opposition’s amendments.

The vote was heavily lopsided: 52 "yes," and 2 "no." Makati’s Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Bataan’s Antonino Roman cast the negative votes. The pro-Arroyo crowd that remained in the gallery applauded the committee several times.

The Datumanong panel is scheduled to vote today on the second question, which is whether the Lozano complaint prohibits the second petition filed by Manila lawyer Jose Lopez and the opposition’s amended pleading.

The vote is likely to be similar to that taken on the first prejudicial question, and could finally kill the opposition’s "lying, cheating and stealing" charges against Mrs. Arroyo.

The impeachment petitioners and endorsers refused to participate further in the Datumanong panel’s proceedings.

Deputy Speaker Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III told reporters they felt they could no longer get "fairness and justice" from the panel.

"Wala silang naririnig at nakikita (They don’t hear and see anything). Even a simple inquiry, they did not want to entertain," he said.

The President’s allies promptly criticized the opposition for its walkout.

"They are sore losers. They know that they will lose the vote and they do not have the 79 signatures to transmit the complaint to the Senate (for trial)," Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said.

Six other defenders of Mrs. Arroyo issued a joint statement describing the walkout as a "premeditated move."

"It followed a script and was later executed under the watchful eyes of showbiz’s best talents," said Salacnib Baterina of Ilocos Sur, Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City, Constantino Jaraula of Cagayan de Oro City, Prospero Pichay Jr. of Surigao del Sur, Eduardo Zialcita of Pasay City and Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur, whose brother was reportedly appointed as a judge recently by Mrs. Arroyo.

"What we saw this afternoon was an attempt by the opposition to stoke the anger of the violent, provoke tumult in the streets, and let the fires of anarchy serve as a smokescreen for the collapse of their cause," they said.

Before the entire session hall and the gallery erupted into chaos, Datumanong, a former Arroyo justice secretary and later public works secretary, brushed aside an inquiry by Deputy Speaker Aquino on what authority the committee had to conduct an inquiry while the House was supposedly in plenary session.

Aquino would later complain to journalists that he did not deserve such treatment.

Datumanong also ignored a motion presented by Surigao del Norte’s Robert "Ace" Barbers for the committee to invite resigned Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman to shed light on her claim that the President instructed Presidential Legislative Liaison Officer Gabriel Claudio last June 27 to look for a congressman who would endorse Lozano’s complaint.

It was at this point that impeachment petitioners and endorsers simultaneously yelled, "Move to adjourn! Move to adjourn!" They were joined in the chant by members of militant groups who had filled one section of the gallery.

Datumanong ignored their collective clamor and insisted that the committee proceed to vote on the first prejudicial question. His insistence triggered the pandemonium, prompting him to declare a long break in the hearing.

Opposition supporters, visibly angered by the turn of events, threw batches of paper from desks and shouted at administration allies, while filing out of the gallery and the session hall.

Opposition leaders, including movie actress Susan Roces and Makati Major Jejomar Binay, joined impeachment petitioners and endorsers in their walkout.

Impeachment spokesman Rep. Edmund Reyes Jr. of Marinduque later said at a news conference that Soliman’s claim proves the original Lozano complaint and its endorsement by Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of the party-list group Alagad was a "lutong macao" (prearranged).

Reyes, a member of the majority bloc like Barbers and Aquino, appealed to his colleagues to endorse the amended complaint so it could be sent to the Senate for trial.

But Lozano belied allegations that he was let loose by the administration to short-circuit the impeachment process.

"Napakabastos naman nila. Hinuhusgahan na nila ako, samantalang nung gusto nilang i-amend iyung complaint tiklop-tuhod sila at abot-abot ang pasasalamat sa akin. I can’t be a pakawala of the President," he said, indicating his accusers showed no respect and were beside themselves with gratitude when they were amending his complaint.

He also said he doesn’t know Marcoleta "from Adam and Eve."

The complaint gained another endorser yesterday in Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, wife of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., president of the Nacionalista Party (NP).

In a statement, Villar said she decided to sign in favor of impeachment after "deep contemplation and reflection" and in order to give the President "her day in court."

"Furthermore, I have seen in all of the proceedings how committed the young members of the House of Representatives are in trying to ferret out the truth," she said.

Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, NP secretary general, said he hoped that with Villar’s endorsement, other party members would also cross the line and support the complaint.

The opposition walkout was preceded by a continuation of debates on the prejudicial issues.

Locsin, a member of the majority bloc, told his colleagues that Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a widely respected expert on the Constitution and the law, was correct in saying that the opposition’s amended complaint and the second petition can be considered as the "bill of particulars" of the Lozano pleading.

He said the opposition’s charges of vote rigging and stealing the May 2004 presidential election against Mrs. Arroyo should be consolidated with the Lozano petition, which is anchored on alleged election fraud committed by the President.

"That would be the complaint I am prepared to sign," he said.

He claimed that the opposition’s other charges, such as those related to the controversial airport Terminal 3 and the Northrail project, "are pleadings for a fishing expedition in the Senate."

"The Lopez complaint is merely a swindle," he added.

Former Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella, another member of the majority, lamented that he and his colleagues had been debating for three weeks the seven complex and confusing "prejudicial questions," which are now reduced to two.

"For me, there is no prejudicial question at all because there is only one complaint, and that is the (opposition’s) amended complaint," he said.

He said the opposition’s petition is the pleading that complies with the Constitution and the House impeachment rules since it is the only one "verified."

"The Lozano and Lopez complaints are not verified and therefore are not valid petitions," he said.

He pointed out that the Constitution and the impeachment rules require a separate verification in which the complainant affirms his pleadings and declares that they are "true of his own knowledge."

Locsin’s and Fuentebella’s views, however, fell on deaf ears.

Echoing Fuentebella’s views, Representatives Jacinto Paras and Rolex Suplico, two of the impeachment petitioners, said the justice committee wasted three weeks of debates.

"We should not be talking about the Lozano and Lopez complaints since there is only one valid petition, and that is our amended complaint," said Suplico.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who had caused much of the confusion and sparked the seemingly interminable debates by raising seven prejudicial questions over a month ago, disagreed with Fuentebella on the matter of verification.

He said it is an acceptable practice in law that lawyers do not have to have their complaints verified.

He said the usual "Subscribe and sworn to before me" paragraph is sufficient and is considered a verification.

Lagman, a staunch Arroyo ally, insisted that the original Lozano complaint is the petition that initiated the impeachment proceeding against the President.

He also lamented that the opposition had depicted Mrs. Arroyo’s defenders as "tiwali o traydor sa sambayang Pilipino (corrupt or traitors to the Filipino public)."

"They do not have the sole franchise of nationalism. They do not have the monopoly on the truth," he said.

However, Lagman said the search for the truth "is subject to parameters."

Another Arroyo ally, Rep. Arthur Defensor of Iloilo, said the opposition resorted to filing the amended complaint after failing in its repeated calls for the President’s resignation.

"The complaint is a long-delayed afterthought," he said.

Cayetano urged his colleagues to consider their amended complaint and hear their evidence.

He and about 20 other members of the minority then rose from their seats and held up copies of what they claimed were fabricated election returns as proof of election fraud, declaring "This is the evidence!"

He said if the House kills the amended complaint and the truth behind the cheating charges are not brought out, young Filipinos might forever ask if Mrs. Arroyo indeed cheated in last year’s election.

"Do we tell them, ‘We don’t know because this committee killed the complaint by a mere technicality?" he asked.

For her part, Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales of the party-list group Akbayan said it was Lozano who, in the latter part of 2000, filed an impeachment complaint against then Vice President Arroyo.

She said the petition was endorsed by Pichay, a staunch Arroyo ally.

"There seems to be a pattern here. The President is mocking the impeachment process," she said. — With Delon Porcalla