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By Sammy Martin, Reporter
The fourth impeachment complaint against President Gloria Arroyo was
trashed at the plenary during nominal voting that ended 12:47 a.m.
of Wednesday. Voting against the complaint were 183 lawmakers and 21
for it. There were three abstentions.
After the voting, the chairman of the House
Committee on Justice said that he wants the constitutional provision
requiring one-third vote of members of the House of Representatives
for an impeachment complaint to make it to the Senate be amended to
simple majority vote.
Rep. Matias Defensor of Quezon City added that
such amendment would make for a more stable government.
“Otherwise, you will have impeachment
[complaints filed] every now and then and you see how dangerous it
is” for the country, Defensor said during a chance interview.
Malacañang enjoined all Filipinos to “move
on” after the fourth impeachment complaint was thrown out.
During his weekly press conference in Malacañang,
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that the “destructive”
process of impeachment was finally over.
“The President’s agenda has always been to
attend to the immediate needs of our people . . . and look at the
effects of this financial economic crisis and she has been sharing
the things she has done in the Philippines with other leaders, so we
can only say that we are glad that this impeachment case is over,”
he added.
According to Defensor, the opposition has the
habit of filing impeachment complaints every year because it thinks
that the one-third vote is more reachable than the simple majority
vote.
“It’s good that the President has many
allies, otherwise we will have an impeachment complaint that will
make it all the way to the Senate,” he said.
Pro- and anti-impeachment groups packed the
gallery to listen to the lawmakers as they debated on the Committee
Report 1551.
US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney
was also seen in the crowd, together with US officials.
When asked about her presence, Kenney said she
was there for a visit to the House and won’t stay for the
proceedings.
In his sponsorship speech for Committee Report
1551, Defensor noted that the complainants failed to prove grounds
for impeachment that would merit a trial in the Senate for President
Arroyo.
“It is but right, therefore, that if the
one-third-vote of all members of the House of Representatives is not
garnered, despite this liberal constitutional concession, those for
impeachment must accept the result without rancor or misgivings,”
Defensor added.
According to Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite,
the impeachment proponents were given the opportunity to speak and
advance their arguments.
The vice chairman of the House Committees on
Revision of Laws, Constitutional Amendments and Local Government
said that there was “no sufficient recital of facts, which would
warrant the offense charged.”
As he cast his negative vote, House Minority
Leader Ronaldo Zamora of San Juan City (Metro Manila) asked, “Is
this [dismissal] the way to treat a serious impeachment
complaint?”
Zamora, together with Representatives Rufus
Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City, Roilo Golez of Parañaque City,
Joel Villanueva and Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales of Cibac party-list,
Mujiv Hataman of Anak Mindanao party-list, Justin Marc Chipeco of
Laguna, Mar-Len Abigail Binay of Makati City, Maria Laarni Cayetano
of Taguig City-Pateros, Benjamin Asilo of Manila and Darlene
Antonino-Custodio of South Cotabato left the plenary hall after each
registering a “No” vote. They said that they saw no reason to
explain their vote.
“It is the administration allies who should
explain to the people their vote, why they are killing the
impeachment complaint. The people know our stand,” Custodio told
reporters during another chance interview.
But endorsers of the complaint, mostly
party-list lawmakers, remained in the hall to argue against the
junking of the complaint.
Earlier, Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna
party-list, in interpellating Defensor, protested the rejection of
the impeachment complaint.
Ocampo said the charge of human-rights
violations against Mrs. Arroyo could not be labeled an old issue
because there have been new cases added to the fourth impeachment
complaint that were not in previous cases.
Rep. Teodoro Casino, also of Bayan Muna, said
the Defensor committee adopted the “cut-and-paste” method in
trashing the complaint, as the administration-dominated House of
Representatives supposedly supposedly did with the three previous
impeachment complaints against the President.
Pro-impeachment lawmakers needed at least 79
votes in the plenary or one-third of the House membership to reverse
the ruling of the House justice committee last week and send the
impeachment complaint to the Senate for trial.
Committee Report 1551 also contained the junking
of three other impeachment complaints filed against Mrs. Arroyo by
columnist Manuel Quezon 3rd and lawyers Oliver Lozano and Guillermo
Sotto. The fourth complaint was filed by businessman Jose “Joey”
de Venecia 3rd, son of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.
-- With Angelo S. Samonte
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