The Daily Tribune <<< Without Fear or Favor >>>

»HEADLINES

»NATION

JDV DARED TO BACK SON-INITIATED BID

House minority divided on endorsing impeach

By Gerry Baldo and Charlie V. Manalo

10/13/2008

A day after encountering their first roadblock in finding that the designated House of Representative official who would accept the fresh impeachment complaint against President Arroyo had flown out of the country, the complainants may find a second hurdle in the disarray among opposition legislators who were supposed to endorse it.

Members of the minority bloc in the House of Representatives remained until yesterday mostly undecided on whether or not to endorse the complaint.

House Deputy Minority Leader Satur Ocampo, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza have indicated that a unified stand on the impeachment complaint has yet to be firmed up even as they remained optimistic that more members would endorse the complaint when Congress resumes from a Halloween break on Nov. 10.

A member of the House of

Representatives strongly identified with the administration also dared former Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. to endorse the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo his son, Jose III is set to file before the office of the House Secretary General early morning today.

In a text message, Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra aired his challenge to De Venecia saying that by doing so, the former Speaker can validate his claim that he still enjoys a relatively strong support among his colleagues in the lower house.

“Do you think JDV (de Venecia’s initials) should endorse his son’s impeachment complaint against the President?” read Mitra’s text message. “This would be a test if JDV still has the numbers in the House.

“If it is true as he says that he still has a lot of loyalists and that there are a lot of disgruntled congressmen, then he should muster enough numbers,” Mitra pointed out.

The Palawan lawmaker, who called de Venecia the father of corruption when he moved to declare the Speakership vacant in February 4 early this year, said that as a good father, the former Speaker should support his son by endorsing Joey’s 97-page impeachment complaint.

“Most likely, there will be initial endorsers at the filing on Monday. Since Congress is in recess, we’ll wait for session to resume on November 10 then campaign for additional endorsements. The minority has not taken a unified stand yet,” said Ocampo.

Ocampo and his fellow Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino have confirmed that they are going to endorse the complaint as well as Gabriela Reps. Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan.

Maza said that they have all the reason to support the complaint.

“I am confident though that in a fair and free process, that would be easy for the opposition to support but we still need to discuss it,” Maza said.

An Waray Rep. Florencio Noel, also a member of minority, complained that they were never consulted on the planned filing of the impeachment complaint.

“How come we were able to have a unified stand when complainants never consulted us about it? I would say that most of us here are unified in saying that the complainants never consulted us,” Noel said.

The impeachment complaint was scheduled for filing last Saturday but that Office of the House Secretary General was closed for the weekend after the marathon budget hearings that ended in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Secretary General Marilyn Yap left for Switzerland with Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Casiño, another supporter of impeachment complaint, said he could not say whether or not the House opposition will have a strong and solid position in endorsing the impeachment complaint like what happened in 2005 and 2006.

“I am not sure, many have yet to read the complaint,” Casiño said.

In separate text messages, Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, Anak Mindanao Rep. Mujiv Hataman and Laguna Rep. Justin Marc Chipeco, all opposition members, admitted that a consensus in supporting the complaint is yet to be reached.

Hontiveros, earlier named as one of the endorsers along with Casiño and Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III, added that they have yet to discuss the impeachment complaint among themselves.

“He should stand by his son as a good father and endorse it,” MItra said.

However, Mitra said the impeachment is bound to fail as he believes the President enjoys a much larger support than de Venecia or any other lawmakers advocating for the removal of Arroyo.

“I am sure he (de Venecia) will not get the support because the President has a lot of supporters in the House,” he said. “And since it is nearing elections, even Senatoriables are afraid of endorsing it because they now it is unpopular and not timely considering the world economic woes.”

“Also, there are only a few months left of the administration, so lawmakers are not so inclined to support this impeachment,” he added.

Meanwhile, leftwing activists belonging to the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) are asking the leading presidential candidates in the 2010 national elections to endorse the fresh impeachment complaint to be filed against Arroyo.

“We are not putting them on the hot spot. We just want them to endorse the new impeachment complaint against President Arroyo in the name of public interest,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.

The Pamalakaya leader directed the appeal to 2010 presidential front runners Vice-President Noli de Castro, Senate President Manuel Villar, Senator Mar Roxas and Senator Loren Legarda.

“This is one big political challenge every 2010 presidential wannabe should not miss. It is in the highest interest of the Filipino people kto bring Mrs. Arroyo to an impeachment trial and subsequently bring her to bars of justice,” Hicap added.

Hicap said a negative attitude towards the fresh impeachment complaint would be deemed “a support to a brutal, criminal, puppet and lameduck president.”

“These leading presidentiables should not keep a silent mode on this matter. They must bare where are they stand on this legitimate and current political talk of the town,” said Hicap.

“Silence would mean endorsing GMA to finish her corrupt and immoral regime and the people might construed their silence is meant for to clinch political compromises with the Arroyo clique,” he added.

Malacañang said nothing else was new in fresh impeachment complaint to be filed against President Arroyo, adding that the Chief Executive would rather concentrate on more important concerns such as the economy.

Palace press undersecretary Anthony Golez said the impeachment raps against the President was a rehash of previous impeachment complaints against Mrs. Arroyo.

The younger de Venecia and lawyer Harry Roque said the fresh complaint include a menu of old scandals, such as the $325-million National Broadband Network deal, P728-million fertilizer fund scam, and illegal disbursements under the Ginintuang Masagana Ani program.

Golez believed the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) between the government and the MILF had been so thoroughly debated that it was pointless to question it.

The grounds for the impeachment complaint include: betrayal of public trust in connection with President Arroyo’s involvement in the ZTE-NBN scandal; that the respondent betrayed public trust when she sold the country’s gold reserve in Mt. Diwalwal to the already controversial ZTE Corporation under the terms of an agreement that are grossly disadvantageous to the country’s interests; and that the respondent betrayed public trust by tampering with the results of the 2004 elections.

The complaint also alleged that President Arroyo committed culpable violations of the Constitution by entering into the Northrail project without the requisite approval of the monetary board and without giving reference to Filipino labor and investment. In addition, Mrs.

Arroyo was also alleged to have violated the Constitution “by conspiring, directing, and tolerating with impunity, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, massacre, illegal arrest and other gross and systematic violations of civil and political rights.”

The complainants also alleged that Mrs. Arroyo should be impeached as a result of acts amounting to bribery in connection with the ZTE-NBN deal; and when “she authorized the distribution of bribe money to members of congress in exchange for the hasty referral of the Pulido impeachment complaint to prevent the filing of a genuine impeachment complaint.”

The complaint also alleged that Mrs. Arroyo should be impeached “for acts of graft and corruption” in connection with the approval of the overpriced northrail project; by profiting from the fertilizer scam; her involvement in the ‘hello Garci’ scandal; and for “allowing, encouraging, abetting, or otherwise acquiescing to the illegal and improper use of at least P5 billion in loans obtained by the Rural Cradit Guarantee Corporation (Quedancor) to fund her administration’s 2004 electoral campaign and furthering political patronage.”

The complainants include Jose De Venecia III, Editha Burgos, Erlinda Cadapan, Rolex Suplico, Josefina Lichauco, Harry Roque Jr., Renato Constantino Jr., Henri Kahn, Francisco Alcuaz, Rez Cortez, Virgilio Eustaquio, Jose Luis Alcuaz, Leah Lopez Navarro, Concepcion Empeno, Elmer Labog, Armando Albarillo, Romeo Clamor, and Bebu Bulchand.

The complainants are set to troop to the House of Represetatives at 6 a.m. today to preempt any attempt by the allies of the administration to file another “bogus impeachment complaint.”