House to hold 4 sessions on GMA impeachment this week
by Carmela Fonbuena, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 11/17/2008 8:01 PM
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The House committee on justice agreed to hold marathon sessions this week to act on the impeachment complaints filed against President Arroyo. Hearings will be held every day from Tuesday to Friday.
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna said the opposition will question the rush. “We will have procedural questions. Apparently, they are rushing this thing. The committee has 60 days. Why do they have to cram the schedule?” he said.
Casino said they want two to three hearings a week. “We need time to process the hearings. We have to study the deliberations and the minutes of the meetings. It has to be well thought out, which you cannot do with marathon sessions,” he said.
Casino said they did not participate in the last impeachment hearings because they were “toilet paper” complaints. “This time it’s a serious complaint. There are a lot of issues. These cannot be discussed summarily,” he said.
Jose “Joey” De Venecia III, Senate’s star witness on the allegedly anomalous US$329-million national broadband project with Chinese company ZTE Corp., and opposition lawyer Harry Roque led the first impeachment complaint filed on October 13.
The complaint cited the alleged involvement of President Arroyo in the anomalous US$329-million national broadband deal with Chinese company ZTE Corp., the P728-million fertilizer fund mess that was purportedly used to finance her 2004 presidential bid, the alleged bribery of House member, and the human rights violations under her administration.
The complaint has so far been endorsed by six members of the House—Casino, fellow Bayan Muna solon Satur Ocampo, Gabriela’s Liza Maza, Anakpawis’s Rafael Mariano, Bukidnon’s Teofisto Guingona III, and former Speaker and administration ally Jose de Venecia II.
Supplemental complaints
Supplemental complaints have been filed, too. Among them are two separate “complaints-in-intervention” that include the Moro homeland accord with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. They were separately filed by a group led by lawyer Manolo Quezon on November 12 and by laywer Oliver Lozano on November 17.
Reacting to Quezon’s supplemental complaint, Bayan Muna’s Ocampo earlier said, “We who endorsed the first complaint respect the right of the proponents to include the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, but we refrain from endorsing it lest it prejudices the complaint we endorsed. This is because any addition or amendment to the original complaint will most likely be treated by the justice committee as a separate complaint, as was done in two prior cases,” Ocampo said in an earlier statement.
“We will have to decide what to do with all these complaints,” Casino said.
On November 10, the complaints were referred by House Speaker Prospero Nograles to the committee on rules, which on the same day referred them to the committee on justice. It will determine if the complaints are sufficient in form and substance. If at all it is approved by the committee, it will be brought to the plenary for voting. A one-third vote of the 238-member House of Representatives will be required to formally start the impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo.
Waste of legislative time?
Administration Congressman Raul Gonzalez Jr. of the lone district of Iloilo and a member of the committee on justice supports the move of the committee. “Personally, this is something that I would support to dispose of as soon as possible,” he said.
Gonzalez questions if the opposition can present more evidence that are not already presented in previous investigations by other institutions. With regard to the ZTE controversy, Gonzalez said there was no evidence that directly linked President Arroyo to the controversy.
“We will just waste a important legislative time. A lot of legislative agenda are side-tracked,” he said.
“Starting next year, important pieces of legislation will be sidetracked because of the 2010 elections. I know that others are obsessed about ousting the President, but even the people are already looking forward to 2010. I want to prioritize important legislative items,” he said.
