This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 22, July 10-16, 2005
People Power Constitutional, Lawyers’ Group Says The
Committee for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) July 8 said it finds without legal
and constitutional basis the threats by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
against mass actions calling for her to step down.
Lawyer Neri Javier
Colmenares, CODAL spokesperson, said that “Not only is this “The operative fact which
enabled Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to assume the presidency was the
fact that there was a crisis, nay a vacuum, in the executive leadership which
made the government rife for seizure by lawless elements,” the Supreme Court
said. The camp of former
President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted through a popular uprising during that
period, had challenged the legality of Arroyo’s assumption of the presidency,
saying she had assumed power by unconstitutional means. Last week, however,
Malacañang spokespersons branded calls for Arroyo’s resignation or ouster as
“unconstitutional.” They have called on the people to follow the rule of law and
not resort to “extra-constitutional” alternatives. “The people should not be
threatened by President Arroyo's intimidation. A government that has brazenly
violated the Constitution's bill of rights, its provisions on taxation and
deployment of foreign troops has no moral authority to lecture the people on the
need to abide by the Constitution", Colmenares added. © 2004 Bulatlat
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BY BULATLAT
The Committee for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) said July 9 it finds without
legal and constitutional basis the threats by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
against mass
actions calling for her to step down.
assertion supported by the Constitutional recognition that ‘sovereignty resides
in the people and all government authority emanates from them’” but the Supreme
Court has declared so in the case of Estrada vs Arroyo, the very case used by
President Arroyo to legitimize her government.
Colmenares cited the Supreme Court ruling of March 2, 2001 that what took place
at EDSA from Jan. 16 to 20, 2001 was not a revolution but the peaceful
expression of popular will.
CODAL asserts that the call of former President Cory Aquino and others for
President Arroyo to step down cannot be deemed a “threat to democratic
principles and constitutional foundations,” as claimed by Mrs. Arroyo. This
demand is the exercise of a legitimate right and not an
extra-constitutional act, the lawyers’ group argues.
CODAL also said that National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo
Wycoco's failure to investigate those who may have committed election offenses
in the “Hello Garci'” tape is a dereliction of his duty as NBI director and he,
like the President, may be tried for violating Art. 208 of the Revised Penal
Code for “tolerating the commission of offenses.”
CODAL further believes that the proposal of former President Fidel Ramos for a
charter change does not address the charge that the President violated the
country’s penal laws and the 1987 Constitution.
The lawyers’ group is calling on the President and her Cabinet to step down and
for the institution of “comprehensive and lasting social reforms” under a
framework which “ensures the people’s effective participation in governance.”
Bulatlat