Nograles: Focus on financial crisis, not impeachment
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/13/2008 5:35 PM
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Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. on Monday said that the House of Representatives will act on the new impeachment complaint against President Arroyo though he said that the move is ill-timed since the government should focus its attention on resolving the effects of the global financial crisis on the country.
“Personally, I think that the impeachment move is just ill-timed. The presidential election is just around the corner and the global community is deeply engrossed with actions and programs to save their respective economies from the lurking threats of recession," he said.
The lower house chief said that while other countries and international leaders are finding ways to stem the effects of the financial turmoil, some quarters are "preaching instability."
"Some are on the verge of collapse, and here, we are preaching the gospel of political instability,” Nograles said.
However, the President's top ally in the House said that congressmen will act on the complaint filed by businessman Jose "Joey" de Venecia III.
“The impeachment complaint filed against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will definitely go through the normal process as stipulated by our Constitution. But as we all know, the matter of impeachment, under our constitutional democracy, is a political exercise that needs to be resolved through a political process," Nograles said.
On Monday morning, De Venecia, a son and namesake of Mrs. Arroyo's former ally in the House, filed the complaint against her, accusing her of, among others, betrayal of public trust.
De Venecia was accompanied by Iloilo Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico and public interest lawyer Harry Roque.
The complaint was endorsed by Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiño and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza.
'On its own merit'
In an interview with radio dzMM, de Venecia said the more than 100-page complaint will "stand on its own merit" and is backed by evidence.
De Venecia said the impeachment complaint is also part of citizens' battle against corruption and poverty.
He expressed hope that more citizens and civil society organizations will support the impeachment complaint.
De Venecia and the other complainants were at the House as early as 6 a.m. to make sure they would be the first to file the impeachment complaint.
Only one impeachment complaint against the president is allowed each year, and only the first valid complaint will be entertained by the House of Representatives under its rules.
The impeachment complaint accuses Mrs. Arroyo of betrayal of public trust after she approved the National Broadband Network (NBN) telecommunications deal with China's ZTE Corp., saying the deal was overpriced by at least $130 million.
Other grounds included in the complaint are:
- culpable violation of the Constitution for approving the Northrail rehabilitation project;
- numerous human rights violations;
- graft and corruption for her administration's involvement in various irregularities including the P728M fertilizer scam, P2B swine scam; and,
- alleged ballot-switching in the 2004 presidential election.
Impeachment complaints filed against Mrs. Arroyo in 2005, 2006 and 2007 all failed to get the needed one-third votes of the House.
