By Cathy C. Yamsuan, Jowel F. Canuday and Allan A. Nawal (Inquirer News Service)
November 3, 2006 - MORE than 73 members of the House of Representatives now favor the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
"By Nov. 6 when the House justice committee convenes to start deliberations on the impeachment, we should overshoot the minimum requirement of 73 members,'' Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin yesterday said.
''That means the impeachment complaint will be converted into articles of impeachment as mandated by the Constitution and will go straight to the Senate," he said.
Seventy-three signatures are required to send the impeachment complaint directly to the Senate for trial.
The senators will serve as jurors while Chief Justice Reynato Puno will act as the judge.
Isabela Rep. Heherson Alvarez was more specific about the number of legislators supporting the impeachment complaint. Alvarez said last night that 78 members of the House were in favor of impeachment.
''We have exceeded the 73 signatures,'' said Alvarez, one of the first three congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint when it was filed Oct. 18.
Sources said Speaker Jose de Venecia and 20 other lawmakers would vote for the impeachment of the President.
Mr. Arroyo is accused of graft, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.
Congressmen, who signed the impeachment complaint, cited the allegations that the President received more than P500 million in ''jueteng'' money and kickbacks from tobacco taxes.
They also cited the President's alleged intervention in the probe of insider trading at the stock exchange and reports that he spent hundreds of millions of pesos for the mansions of his mistresses.
Arroyo said the resignation of Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr., acting chair of the committee on justice, from the ruling Lapian ng Masang Pilipino (LAMP) encouraged other legislators to follow suit.
''This is the beginning of the end for the President because Gonzales' move will cause the fast tracking of the entire procedure," Arroyo said.
Davao lawmakers
In Davao City, Rep. Manuel Garcia (Lakas, 2nd district) said he and at least nine congressmen would sign the impeachment complaint.
Garcia identified some of these lawmakers as Davao Rep. Rodrigo Duterte, Batangas Rep. Jose Laurel IV and Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas.
Garcia said the commitment of the nine lawmakers to sign the complaint boosted the chances of anti-Estrada congressmen in getting the 73 votes needed by the House to file the articles of impeachment in the Senate.
''Remember when the impeachment case was filed in the House, only 42 signed the resolution supporting the President's impeachment, then it climbed up to 46 few days after. Last week, it was announced that 55 congressmen had already signed the impeachment resolutions. Soon we will have 10 more,'' Garcia said.
Reelectionist lawmakers
He said more and more lawmakers, especially reelectionist congressmen, would sign the impeachment resolution as a matter of ''political survival.''
The INQUIRER tried to reach Duterte yesterday but his staff said he was not available for comment.
Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas would neither confirm nor deny that he was going to the support the impeachment case.
''I am still studying the complaint. But my decision will be in accordance with what my conscience dictates. As I have been saying, I have constituents to serve,'' he said.
Cagas, a member of LAMP, also confirmed reports that more congressmen were willing to endorse the impeachment complaint.
''You will hear some surprises in Congress,'' he said without elaborating.
''Until then, I will withhold any comment because as a member of the committee on justice, it is improper for me to make one,'' he said.
Garcia earlier said that he decided against signing the impeachment complaint because it would be referred to the committee on justice of which he is a member.
But he said he would affix his signature on the complaint as soon as the committee started evaluating the impeachment charges.
On Monday, the House will determine whether the impeachment is sufficient in form and substance.
Not in the session hall
But the House committee on justice has defied a decision of representatives in a plenary assembly to conduct impeachment hearings in the session hall, according to Arroyo.
Instead, the committee opted to hold the hearings in the same venue where Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis ''Chavit'' Singson was prevented by members of the committee on public order from testifying about the more than P500 million in jueteng money and tobacco tax kickbacks that the President had allegedly received Arroyo, the newest member of the committee on justice, said the decision of the committee on justice was reached by its four vice chairs-Gonzales, Pasig City Rep. Henry P. Lanot, Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez and Bohol Rep. Eladio M. Jala.
Gonzales is the acting committee chair after Nueva Ecija Rep. Pacifico Fajardo inhibited himself from presiding over the impeachment proceedings because he is a relative of Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Congressman Arroyo warned that the committee's decision not to hold the hearings in the session hall indicated the likely outcome of the proceedings.
Singson's appearance before the committee on public order on Oct. 10 took place in Conference Rooms A and B. The rooms are roughly one-twentieth the size of the plenary hall.
Administration representatives immediately lashed out at Singson after he described the President as ''the lord of all jueteng lords.'' Using their numbers, the pro-administration legislators succeeded in stopping the hearing.
''What does the committee do? Defying the House plenary resolution? It set the committee hearings in Conference Rooms A and B perhaps to convey the sick and morbid message that it is the same conference room where Governor Singson was gagged in a show of numbers,'' Arroyo said.
''The public would be effectively excluded from the hearings for lack of space. It is surreal and bizarre,'' he said.
Arroyo said the House in plenary session approved impeachment hearings in the session hall to accommodate the 55 justice committee members, the legislators who signed the impeachment complaint and non-government organizations.
''The gallery as usual would be reserved for the public, which is expected to come in droves,'' he said.
Arroyo reiterated his warning against his colleagues trying to trifle with the impeachment complaint.
''Hearing the case is a sacred constitutional duty. An impeachment complaint, according to US precedents is a 'high constitutional privilege,' thereby giving it precedence over other legislative matters,'' Arroyo said.
''In the Clinton impeachment proceedings before the US House judiciary committee, it was observed that impeachment is a 'task' second only in gravity to Congress' power to declare war','' he said.
This early, many fear that pro-Arroyo representatives will quickly dismiss the impeachment charge for ''lack of form and substance.'' With reports from the PDI Mindanao Bureau
November 3, 2006 - MORE than 73 members of the House of Representatives now favor the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
"By Nov. 6 when the House justice committee convenes to start deliberations on the impeachment, we should overshoot the minimum requirement of 73 members,'' Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin yesterday said.
''That means the impeachment complaint will be converted into articles of impeachment as mandated by the Constitution and will go straight to the Senate," he said.
Seventy-three signatures are required to send the impeachment complaint directly to the Senate for trial.
The senators will serve as jurors while Chief Justice Reynato Puno will act as the judge.
Isabela Rep. Heherson Alvarez was more specific about the number of legislators supporting the impeachment complaint. Alvarez said last night that 78 members of the House were in favor of impeachment.
''We have exceeded the 73 signatures,'' said Alvarez, one of the first three congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint when it was filed Oct. 18.
Sources said Speaker Jose de Venecia and 20 other lawmakers would vote for the impeachment of the President.
Mr. Arroyo is accused of graft, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.
Congressmen, who signed the impeachment complaint, cited the allegations that the President received more than P500 million in ''jueteng'' money and kickbacks from tobacco taxes.
They also cited the President's alleged intervention in the probe of insider trading at the stock exchange and reports that he spent hundreds of millions of pesos for the mansions of his mistresses.
Arroyo said the resignation of Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr., acting chair of the committee on justice, from the ruling Lapian ng Masang Pilipino (LAMP) encouraged other legislators to follow suit.
''This is the beginning of the end for the President because Gonzales' move will cause the fast tracking of the entire procedure," Arroyo said.
Davao lawmakers
In Davao City, Rep. Manuel Garcia (Lakas, 2nd district) said he and at least nine congressmen would sign the impeachment complaint.
Garcia identified some of these lawmakers as Davao Rep. Rodrigo Duterte, Batangas Rep. Jose Laurel IV and Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas.
Garcia said the commitment of the nine lawmakers to sign the complaint boosted the chances of anti-Estrada congressmen in getting the 73 votes needed by the House to file the articles of impeachment in the Senate.
''Remember when the impeachment case was filed in the House, only 42 signed the resolution supporting the President's impeachment, then it climbed up to 46 few days after. Last week, it was announced that 55 congressmen had already signed the impeachment resolutions. Soon we will have 10 more,'' Garcia said.
Reelectionist lawmakers
He said more and more lawmakers, especially reelectionist congressmen, would sign the impeachment resolution as a matter of ''political survival.''
The INQUIRER tried to reach Duterte yesterday but his staff said he was not available for comment.
Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas would neither confirm nor deny that he was going to the support the impeachment case.
''I am still studying the complaint. But my decision will be in accordance with what my conscience dictates. As I have been saying, I have constituents to serve,'' he said.
Cagas, a member of LAMP, also confirmed reports that more congressmen were willing to endorse the impeachment complaint.
''You will hear some surprises in Congress,'' he said without elaborating.
''Until then, I will withhold any comment because as a member of the committee on justice, it is improper for me to make one,'' he said.
Garcia earlier said that he decided against signing the impeachment complaint because it would be referred to the committee on justice of which he is a member.
But he said he would affix his signature on the complaint as soon as the committee started evaluating the impeachment charges.
On Monday, the House will determine whether the impeachment is sufficient in form and substance.
Not in the session hall
But the House committee on justice has defied a decision of representatives in a plenary assembly to conduct impeachment hearings in the session hall, according to Arroyo.
Instead, the committee opted to hold the hearings in the same venue where Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis ''Chavit'' Singson was prevented by members of the committee on public order from testifying about the more than P500 million in jueteng money and tobacco tax kickbacks that the President had allegedly received Arroyo, the newest member of the committee on justice, said the decision of the committee on justice was reached by its four vice chairs-Gonzales, Pasig City Rep. Henry P. Lanot, Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez and Bohol Rep. Eladio M. Jala.
Gonzales is the acting committee chair after Nueva Ecija Rep. Pacifico Fajardo inhibited himself from presiding over the impeachment proceedings because he is a relative of Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Congressman Arroyo warned that the committee's decision not to hold the hearings in the session hall indicated the likely outcome of the proceedings.
Singson's appearance before the committee on public order on Oct. 10 took place in Conference Rooms A and B. The rooms are roughly one-twentieth the size of the plenary hall.
Administration representatives immediately lashed out at Singson after he described the President as ''the lord of all jueteng lords.'' Using their numbers, the pro-administration legislators succeeded in stopping the hearing.
''What does the committee do? Defying the House plenary resolution? It set the committee hearings in Conference Rooms A and B perhaps to convey the sick and morbid message that it is the same conference room where Governor Singson was gagged in a show of numbers,'' Arroyo said.
''The public would be effectively excluded from the hearings for lack of space. It is surreal and bizarre,'' he said.
Arroyo said the House in plenary session approved impeachment hearings in the session hall to accommodate the 55 justice committee members, the legislators who signed the impeachment complaint and non-government organizations.
''The gallery as usual would be reserved for the public, which is expected to come in droves,'' he said.
Arroyo reiterated his warning against his colleagues trying to trifle with the impeachment complaint.
''Hearing the case is a sacred constitutional duty. An impeachment complaint, according to US precedents is a 'high constitutional privilege,' thereby giving it precedence over other legislative matters,'' Arroyo said.
''In the Clinton impeachment proceedings before the US House judiciary committee, it was observed that impeachment is a 'task' second only in gravity to Congress' power to declare war','' he said.
This early, many fear that pro-Arroyo representatives will quickly dismiss the impeachment charge for ''lack of form and substance.'' With reports from the PDI Mindanao Bureau
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