BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Posted 11 a.m. June 20, 2006

The new impeachment complaint, dubbed as the “People’s Case” against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be gathering more private individual complainants until its filing on June 26 at the House of Representatives.

Private lawyers and complainants launched the People’s Case at a forum at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City last night.

University of the Philippines professor Randy David said the impeachment process “is the only constitutional procedure left” to put an end on the crisis of the legitimacy of the current administration.

“It is to defend what remains of our democratic institutions from the relentless assault to which we have been subjected by a reckless politician and her civilian and military allies,” he said.

Although David said that impeachment is the last constitutional order, he does not believe that Arroyo would answer “in her conscience” questions in court.

“She was there to use every legal technicality available in order to avoid moral and criminal accountability,” he said.

He added that he has no illusions that the voting in the House of Representatives would be any different when it “killed” the impeachment complaint last year.

Private complainants and other pro-impeachment individuals and groups are planning to hold a vigil June 25-26 to avoid a possible duplication of the complaint, which happened last year when lawyer Oliver Lozano filed the first complaint.

The filing is set on June 26, when the one-year ban on the filing of an impeachment complaint against the president expires.

Unlike the Lozano complaint last year, lawyer Harry Roque said that in the new impeachment case, Macapagal-Arroyo would be made to answer charges of killings of activists.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said that Karapatan human rights group records show that there have been 687 victims of political killings since Macapagal-Arroyo assumed presidency in 2001. Aside from being “widespread and systematic,” Ocampo said the killings were done in a “treacherous” manner.

Although Ocampo said they still do not have the final number of endorsers in the House, the House minority members would try to obtain by June 26 the 79 votes needed to have the complaint approved by the House.

But despite the legal and political characteristics of the complaint, David said the new impeachment case aims to “actively engage the people” in the resolution of the crisis.

More private complainants are encouraged to sign the “People’s Case” before its formal launching on June 22, at 12 noon at the Club Filipino in San Juan city. Bulatlat

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