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Opposition congressmen,
joined by colleagues from the Liberal Party and party-list groups, have
gathered 10 more signatures for their amended impeachment complaint
against President Arroyo.
This was revealed over the
weekend by San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, who heads the opposition’s
impeachment bloc, in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
This brings to 52 the
members of the House of Representatives who have signed the impeachment
petition, still 27 shy of the required 79 signatures, or one-third of the
chamber’s membership, to shortcut the process and send the complaint
expeditiously to the Senate for trial.
The opposition recruited
the 10 in just one week, since the amended petition was filed last Monday,
when the Second Regular Session of the 13th Congress opened.
After failing to present 79
signatures when they filed the complaint, the opposition announced it
would resort to a "creeping" impeachment process, which means it
would slowly convince potential endorsers until the needed number is
reached.
In the interview, Zamora
refused to go into specifics, saying, "you have to remember that
after the 28 signatures of the minority, every one that we recruit is a
member of the majority who is subject to tremendous pressure from their
colleagues and the administration."
He said the opposition will
disclose the identities of the 10 "in due time."
Actually, Zamora exceeded
his count of the minority’s signatures. Seven of the 28 members of the
minority have not signed and endorsed the impeachment complaint.
They are Representatives
Luis Asistio and Oscar Malapitan of Caloocan City, Antonio Serapio of
Valenzuela City, Vincent Crisologo of Quezon City, Benjamin Agarao of
Laguna, Baisendig Dilangalen of Maguindanao and Rene Magtubo of the
party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa.
As of last Friday, none of
the seven had endorsed the amended petition, although each committed his
signature.
Reached for comment
yesterday, Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, the minority’s
spokesman on the impeachment initiative, told The STAR he could confirm
that there were "about 10 more signatures."
"Our problem is that
most of them signed on condition that their names not be released until we
have obtained 79 signatures. Indeed, their endorsement of the complaint
will be useless until we have the needed number to send the impeachment
charges to the Senate. So it’s still hard work," he said.
He said besides their own
minority colleagues, the impeachment petitioners are working on the
remaining members of the Liberal Party, the Nacionalista Party and a group
of independents from the ruling Lakas.
"If all those will
endorse the petition, we will have more than 79," he added.
The majority bloc and the
committee on justice, to which the original and amended impeachment
complaints have been referred for scrutiny, have served notice on the
opposition that they will not allow a "creeping" process.
But Cayetano said it will
be a different story once the petitioners are able to obtain the needed
number of signatures.
"As of now, the
pressure is on us. Once we have 79 endorsers, the pressure will be on the
majority. If they still refuse to send the complaint to the Senate for
trial, they will be seen as hiding the truth behind a technicality,"
he said.
He also said he and the
minority will agree with the proposal of Majority Leader Prospero Nograles
that the House should adopt the impeachment rules of the previous Congress
to do away with the acrimonious debates on the draft impeachment rules.
"Those rules should be
fair since there was yet no complaint against President Arroyo then,"
he said.
In a related development,
Pasig City Rep. Robert Jaworski Jr. warned his House colleagues yesterday
of more political unrest if they choose "to ignore the facts in the
impeachment complaint against President Arroyo and refuse to bring the
case to the Senate for a full trial."
"I hope that House
will not be a party to Malacañang’s effort to cover up the truth behind
allegations of election fraud, bribery and corruption against Mrs. Arroyo.
It is almost inevitable that civil unrest will again explode if the public
is denied the right to fully appreciate the facts behind the
allegations," he said.
"If the President and
her allies think that she is clean, then they should submit themselves to
the Senate impeachment court," said Jaworski, a member of the
majority but who is inclined to endorse the impeachment complaint.
He and Marinduque Rep.
Edmund Reyes, another member of the majority, had joined mounting calls
for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation.
Jaworski said he hoped that
even without the needed 79 votes, the committee on justice would recommend
that the complaint be sent to the Senate for trial.
"I’m still
optimistic that House members will behave themselves based on the truth
and not loyalty to the President. Doing otherwise will bring about
immeasurable political repercussions," he added.
Meanwhile, two allies of
Mrs. Arroyo urged the opposition not to delay the approval of the proposed
impeachment rules so that the committee on justice can begin tackling the
complaints against the President.
In a joint statement,
Representatives Marcelino Libanan of Eastern Samar, justice committee vice
chairman, and Exequiel Javier of Antique said the opposition cannot insist
on a creeping impeachment process since this is clearly unconstitutional.
They said members of the
minority, after having failed to gather 79 signatures when they filed the
amended complaint last Monday, can no longer present the number of
signatures to the justice committee, divest the panel of jurisdiction over
the petition and send the complaint to the Senate for trial.
The committee will have to
finish its job and submit a report to the plenary session, where 79 votes
can affirm or overturn the committee’s recommendations, they added.
MANILA, August 1, 2005 (STAR)
By Jess Diaz |
