House votes 158-51 to kill impeachment

By Jess Diaz
The Philippine Star 09/07/2005

Lawmakers groggy from a marathon debate session threw out all three impeachment charges against President Arroyo yesterday, despite warnings that the move could worsen her political crisis and spark a new people power revolt.

The nationally televised session that started Monday afternoon dragged on for about 23 hours — the longest in post-war history of the Philippine Congress — and was marked by intense debate and impassioned pleas from opposition lawmakers for justice and fairness.

The roll-call vote of the 236-member House of Representatives commenced at about 3:40 a.m. and well into the afternoon, the final tally was announced by Deputy Speaker Gerry Salappudin: 158 for upholding the committee on justice report dismissing the three complaints, 51 against it, while six abstained.

Two of those who abstained were Baisendig Dilangalen of Maguindanao, who belongs to the minority, and Janette Garin of Iloilo City, a member of the majority bloc. Augusto Baculio of Misamis Oriental, Fernejel Biron of Iloilo City, Vincent Crisologo of Quezon City, and Jaime Lopez of Manila also abstained.

At least three endorsers — Imee Marcos of Ilocos Norte, Joseph Santiago of Catanduanes and Reynaldo Uy of Western Samar — were conspicuously absent during the voting.

Allies of the embattled President in the House effectively gave her a one-year protection from ouster through the impeachment process by killing all three separate but related complaints against her.

The President is set to leave for the United Nations in New York City this week to attend a summit of world leaders.

Her headaches, however, are far from over. Her political opponents and critics, including former President Corazon Aquino, have vowed to bring the battle for her ouster to the streets. Others were preparing to contest the historic decision of the House before the Supreme Court.

Yesterday afternoon, as the House was still voting, Mrs. Aquino was leading a large rally to protest the congressmen’s killing of the impeachment process and to press Mrs. Arroyo to resign.

With the impeachment process over, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said his chamber should now focus on other priorities like the proposed P1-trillion 2006 national budget and Cha-cha (Charter change) proposals.

"It’s now also time to put this divisive episode of impeaching the President behind us and to embrace a period of healing for the nation," he said.

During the voting process, the Speaker said he and his colleagues in the majority bloc "felt terrible about bringing these (opposition’s) charges to the Senate for trial because a trial could endanger the country and its economy."

He added that "for all her faults, GMA is still our best option at this time."

Minority Leader Francis Escudero said the heavily lopsided vote "was not a triumph for Mrs. Arroyo but a defeat of the truth."

He said impeachment petitioners and endorsers would continue to search for the truth through "peaceful street protests and prayers."

Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said the opposition should "respect the will of the majority, even if the truth hurts."

He said Mrs. Arroyo’s allies voted for their constituencies who can punish them in the next elections if they disagree with their vote.

Former Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella, one of four or five congressmen who did not endorse the opposition’s amended complaint but decided last night to vote with petitioners and endorsers, said the majority, though it always prevails, is not always right.

He said he believes that sending the complaint to the Senate for trial would help Mrs. Arroyo more than killing it as this would shed light on the charges against her.

Another congressman who voted with the minority was Makati’s Teodoro Locsin Jr., who had long advocated a consolidation of the complaints.

He said the House vote effectively "inoculates" the President from impeachment for one year.

Manila Rep. Rodolfo Bacani told his fellow members of the majority bloc that he was right in predicting on Aug. 29 that the President’s allies would kill the impeachment complaints before her scheduled trip to New York later this week.

Militant labor leader-turned-lawmaker Crispin Beltran lamented that House members were presiding over the burial of the impeachment process.

Another militant party-list representative, Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna, said "the people’s hope for truth and change has inexorably passed on from Congress to the parliament of the streets."

Echoing the lament of his colleagues, Rep. Mujiv Hataman of the party-list group Anak Mindanao said Mrs. Arroyo’s defenders buried the impeachment complaints through technicalities and non-existent prejudicial questions.

Parañaque’s Roilo Golez said: "We have fought the good fight. We lost a battle but not the war. To the victors, I would like to share a Japanese proverb: ‘The seeds of tragedy are implanted in the blossoms of victory.’"

Surigao del Norte’s Robert "Ace" Barbers, one of four members of the majority who endorsed the amended complaint two weeks ago, declared, "I am proud to have decided to fight side by side with the opposition."

He said petitioners and endorsers, at least, did not sell their souls to the "devil." Conscience clear
Barbers’ majority colleagues, however, justified their decision to uphold the justice committee report killing the three complaints.

Lanao del Norte’s Alipio Badelles said he was voting for the report "so we can now attend to the country’s other problems."

"My conscience is clear because my vote has no political color," he said.

Ilocos Sur’s Salacnib Baterina blamed the opposition for the failure of the impeachment process.

Baterina told petitioners and endorsers that they had the chance to present 79 signatures to send their petition to the Senate for trial when they filed it on July 25 and again last night, but they failed in both instances.

Zamboanga del Sur’s Antonio Cerilles, a former ally of ousted President Joseph Estrada, said the opposition can try again next year, after Mrs. Arroyo’s one-year impeachment protection lapses.

Cebu’s Eduardo Gullas took exception to allegations that there was cheating in the 2004 presidential polls held in Cebu.

"I can tell you without fear of contradiction that GMA won fair and square in Cebu, particularly in my district. Cebuanos are not cheaters," he said.

Among all provinces, Cebu gave the President her largest margin in the last year’s presidential election. Her margin of nearly a million votes there wiped out the huge lead held in the populous Lucena City-Lingayen-Dagupan corridor in Luzon, including Metro Manila, by her closest opponent, the late popular actor Fernando Poe Jr.

Nanette Castelo-Daza of Quezon City said she believes there was "no moral, legal, political, and constitutional compulsion" to impeach the President.

Davao del Norte’s Antonio Floirendo Jr., whose family made its fortune growing bananas on thousands of hectares of land leased from the government at a low price, said "impeachment is bad for business."

Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Arroyo, voted to support the committee report dismissing the complaints against his sister-in-law.

Presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, who returned from exile to attend the birthday celebration of brother Dato, did not show up in the House. Unlike uncle Iggy, Mikey is on an indefinite leave of absence from his duties as House member.

Dilangalen, wife of former congressman Didagen Dilangalen, Estrada’s spokesman, said she did not endorse the amended complaint of her minority colleagues because she does not believe in the impeachment process.

Baisendig Dilangalen is one of only two House allies of Estrada. The other is Luis Asistio of Caloocan City, who is abroad.

On Monday night, Estrada, in a statement, belatedly called on his two allies to endorse the opposition’s amended complaint. Neither of them apparently heeded his call.

Three other members of the minority denied their much-needed signatures up to the last minute. They are Oscar Malapitan of Caloocan, Antonio Serapio of Valenzuela City and Quezon City’s Crisologo.

Garin said the justice committee should have consolidated the complaints and the House should have given Mrs. Arroyo the forum to answer the election fraud-related charges against her.

Cavite’s Gilbert Remulla said that, in the four years he has been a House member, the day he endorsed the opposition’s complaint two weeks ago was one of his happiest moments.

"Today, as the majority kills this complaint, is one of my saddest moments," he said.

He said the majority went against the tide in sending the impeachment process to the graveyard "since the surveys show that a majority of the people in Metro Manila and other parts of the nation want Mrs. Arroyo… impeached."

His brother Jesus Crispin voted "yes (for the committee report) with reservations."

Jesus Crispin Remulla’s vote, however, was not consistent with what he told the justice committee during debates, when he said the committee’s decision to spike the complaints set a bad precedent.

Isabela’s Edwin Uy said the impeachment process was not killed by the House but merely "came to an end simply because the opposition failed to present 79 signatures to instantly impeach the President."

Rep. Cynthia Villar of Las Piñas, wife of Nacionalista Party president and Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., said she believes an impeachment trial in the Senate "is what is best for the country, for the President and for the people, who deserve nothing less than the truth."

It was the first time that House members held a marathon session lasting close to 24 hours. They hold overnight sessions to fast-track important legislation such as the national budget or the EVAT bill, but normally finish the voting before the sun rises.

Yesterday morning, as if beating a deadline, they continued the voting process even as many members were visibly slumped in their seats from exhaustion. — With AP