Article posted August 30, 2005

Impeach bid crashes as House panel rejects amended complaint

The majority-dominated House justice committee on Tuesday effectively struck down the amended complaint of the opposition by declaring that the original complaint filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano was distinct and separate.

Thus, the House panel could only tackle the Lozano complaint, which was considered the weakest among the three impeachment cases.

The Lozano version was the basis of the amended complaint filed by the opposition against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The crashing defeat of the House impeach team came after 52 members of the 90-man justice committee voted to declare the Lozano complaint as separate from the amended complaint of the opposition.


The amended Lozano complaint, therefore, violates the ban against initiating more than one complaint against the President in one year.

Reps. Teddyboy Locsin (Makati City) and Antonino Roman (Bataan) abstained from the lopsided voting.

Pro-impeachment members of the justice committee did not vote as they joined the earlier walk out that marred the voting.

Senior House deputy minority leader Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, impeachment spokesman, said the amended complaint was now "clinically dead."

The amended version has included charges of alleged human rights violations by Mrs. Arroyo and illegal gambling by members of her family aside from the betrayal of public trust.

Cayetano said the next move of the House justice panel is to bar on Wednesday the two other complaints: the amended version and the complaint filed by a certain Jose Lopez.

He said the Lozano complaint would surely be junked by the House justice committee since aside from being weak, it was not verified.

The House impeachment team, however, could still overturn the panel ruling if it would be able to gather 79 votes during the plenary voting.

The ruling of the justice panel could be over ruled by at least 79 votes in the 236-man plenary and send the complaint straight to the Senate for trial.

WALK OUT

The minority-instigated walk out was prompted after Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, House justice panel, terminated the debates and opted to conduct a voting.

Datumanong likewise shot down a motion by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers to discuss the allegations earlier made by former Secretary Dinky Soliman.

Barbers also urged the House panel to summon Soliman and presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio to shed light on the issue.

Soliman bared that Malacanan hatched the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano and that nolessthan Claudio orchestrated its endorsement by party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta.

Susan Roces, widow of the late Fernando Poe Jr, and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay -- who were seated at the gallery -- also joined the walk out.

Before the walk out, House security personnel dragged some members of militant groups out of the gallery after trying to unfurl anti-Arroyo banner during the hearing of the House justice panel.

The militants were seated in the gallery when they were caught about the display banners bearing anti-Gloria slogans.

The groups were later led out of the gallery.

As of Tuesday, the House impeachment team was still short of numbers to get 79 signatures and send the complaint straight to the Senate.

South Cotabato Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio said so far only 49 congressmen have officially signed the complaint.

Las Pinas Rep. Cynthia Villar, wife of Senator Manuel Villar, was the latest endorser of the impeachment complaint.

Villar, a member of the Nacionalista Party, signed the complaint Tuesday after arriving from China.

The House impeachment team found it hard to recruit more to their side as Malacanan exhausted all its influence to dissuade congressmen from joining the impeachment bandwagon.