Impeachment Row Shifts to Streets; Civil Disobedience vs Arroyo Mulled

With the administration-controlled House Committee on Justice voting to kill the amended impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in favor of a weak one whose veracity is in question, the impeachment battle has shifted to the streets for those who considered Congress as the main battlefield. Meanwhile, bigger anti-Arroyo protests are at hand.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

A youth activist (right photo) is forced into a van by Batasan guards outside the House where pro-impeachment congressmen (left photo) display election returns before their walkout.                        Photos by Aubrey Makilan

QUEZON CITY (Bulatlat Special Release, 31 August 2005) -- “If you have ‘Gloria Resign’ or ‘Impeach Gloria’ posters, you had better throw them away. They are now useless.”

Those were the words of Anak Mindanao (AMIN) Rep. Mujiv Hataman as he spoke Aug. 30 before a rally of thousands in front of the House of Representatives at the Batasan complex in Quezon City. He and other pro-impeachment solons had walked out of the House session hall minutes before to protest the majority’s alleged railroading of the Justice Committee’s voting on the prejudicial questions on the three impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is facing calls for her resignation, impeachment or ouster following renewed allegations that she committed fraud in the 2004 election.

It turned out to be a foreboding of things to come.

At past 4 p.m. today, the administration-dominated justice committee voted 48-4 with one abstention recognizing the original complaint filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano. The vote effectively dismissed the amended version file by opposition congressmen and people’s organizations as well as the one filed by lawyer Jose Rizalino Lopez to impeach the President.

AFTER WALKOUT: Pro-impeachment congresspersons answer questions from Congress reporters.

The same committee had earlier (Aug. 30) shot down the amended complaint, 52-2. Earlier on the same day, former Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman had revealed in a press conference that the original impeachment complaint filed by Lozano – which had been amended by cause-oriented groups, concerned individuals, and the House minority bloc – was a fake one that had the blessings of Malacañang.

The amended impeachment complaint charges Arroyo with bribery and graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution. Among the grounds for impeachment in the amended complaint are the human rights violations committed by state forces under her watch, falling under culpable violation of the Constitution.

The first prejudicial question was hinged on whether or not the original and amended Lozano complaints should be treated as one or separately.

73 signatures

In a speech at the House, pro-impeachment Rep. Edmund Reyes (Marinduque) declared that the amended complaint had gathered 73 signatures, six short of the required 79 to send it directly to the Senate for trial.

Pro-impeachment lawmakers wanted to summon Soliman to verify her allegation, but Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, chairman of the Justice Committee and a staunch Arroyo ally, refused. This sent documents flying in the session hall and pro-impeachment solons walking out of the proceedings.

For those who actively supported the impeachment complaint, the battle has now shifted to the streets.

“The battle is two-pronged: we are trying to get the 79 votes (needed for the amended complaint), but at the same time we are ready to take to the streets,” said Dr. Minguita Padilla, a member of the White Ribbon Movement (WRM), in a brief phone interview hours before the vote. “We want the President to step down, but we want to give the impeachment a chance.” The WRM, a middle-force alliance, had been actively pushing for the amended impeachment complaint. Its members had mostly considered the impeachment court as the main battleground.

Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (Nationalista, Pateros-Taguig) addresses protesters at the rally outside the Batasan gate. With him are party-list and other opposition solons.

In the same interview, Padilla also talked about the possibility of the WRM joining civil-disobedience campaigns as a last resort. The pro-bono lawyers’ group Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Intergrity, and Nationalism Inc. (MABINI) had recently called for non-payment of taxes in protest against the Arroyo regime.

“If we feel that (our President) has no mandate to lead, we see that our officials who are elected to uphold the law are thwarting the rule of law, why should we citizens give them the benefit of our taxes?” Padilla asked.

In a separate interview, Renato Reyes, Jr., secretary-general of the cause-oriented group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), said: “This development only justifies what we have been saying before, that it is the people who should take action, it is the people who should be decisive in the fight for Gloria’s removal.”

Reyes also said in the interview that various anti-Arroyo groups and alliances will formally launch on Sept. 3 the Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM), a broad-based network pushing for Arroyo’s ouster. He also said the GSM is planning a big protest action sometime next week.

Pro-impeachment members of Congress, including progressive Party-list representatives, walked out of the committee hearing following what turned out to be brazen attempts by anti-impeachment congressmen to railroad the “murder” of the amended complaint.

The pro-impeachment congressmen joined the rally of about 5,000 protesters outside the Batasan gate.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo said the people’s mass actions seek to put the House on notice that “the people would not countenance the cold-blooded, unprincipled and morally-depraved murder of the impeachment complaint as what Arroyo loyalists would like to happen.” Bulatlat

Photos by Aubrey Makilan

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