This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, Special Issue, August 31, 2005
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 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. 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. 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 © 2004 Bulatlat
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