CRISIS OF THE ARROYO REGIME

Disgust over Junking of Impeachment Mounts

Outraged by the possibility that the impeachment case against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will meet its imminent death, private individuals and people’s organizations who are complainants of the case agree that this would erode the people’s confidence in the rule of law. A United Nations Judge, on the other hand, believes that with the country under elite rule, the impeachment case was dead right from the start.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat

Private complainants of the amended impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo agree that the imminent death of their case against the president will erode the people’s confidence in the rule of law. SILENCE BEFORE STORM: Solons stand at attention as the National Anthem is played at the House, Aug. 31. Photo by Dabet Castañeda

United Nations Judge Ad Litem Romeo Capulong, on the other hand, believes that since the country is under elite rule, the impeachment case was dead right from the start.

Death blow

When the president challenged her critics to bring their case to Congress, not a few members of the Opposition, party-list groups, people’s organizations and private individuals took the challenge and filed an impeachment case against her at the House of Representatives.

But the impeachment case was practically killed by the House Committee on Justice, which is dominated by pro-Arroyo members, on Aug. 31, when it issued four successive rulings. First it declared that the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, Jose Lopez, and the amended complaint filed and endorsed by the Opposition were to be treated separately.  Then it ruled that the Lopez and amended complaints be barred.  Third, it ruled that the Lozano complaint was sufficient in form. Delivering the final blow, the committee ruled that the Lozano complaint was “grossly insufficient in substance.”

All these were accomplished by the pro-Arroyo majority congressmen after they provoked the minority to walk out of the session and have the plenary session adjourned for two consecutive days.    

Pro-impeachment representatives from the Opposition and Party lists walked out of the Committee on Justice hearing Aug. 30, after Rep. Simeon Datumanong, chair of the committee, pushed for a voting on the prejudicial questions, ignoring the pleadings of the Opposition to present evidences and discuss the question on whether the Lozano complaint was a Palace ploy. The pleadings were was in reference to the earlier revelation by former Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman that the president orchestrated the filing of the defective Lozano complaint.

To pave the way for the second session of the committee, Aug. 31, the majority ensured that there would be no quorum in the plenary session at 4 p.m.. Before the roll call of the plenary session, this reporter witnessed a significant number of administration congressmen leaving the session hall. After the plenary session was adjourned for lack of quorum and the committee was to resume its hearing, the same congressmen returned to the hall.

Disgust

“Of course it shows what kind of politics we have,” said Dr. Melba Maggay, executive director of the faith-based ISACC and one of the private complainants of the amended impeachment complaint.  “This is what we get from working within the system,” she added.

Maggay said that “it’s just a contest of power and not of accountability and governance.”

She expressed her dismay over the president’s allies in Congress who have all along shown their determination to kill the impeachment case. “They should not invoke the rule of law for the political survival of one person (referring to Macapagal-Arroyo),” she said.

Connie Bragas-Regalado, chair of the migrants group Migrante International, one of the people’s organizations that signed as a complainant, said that their organization had no illusion that the impeachment process would succeed.

“Ang pagbasura sa amended impeachment complaint ay senyales na guilty sya sa charges na aming inihapag” (The junking of the amended complaint is a sign that she is guilty of the charges filed against her), she said.

People power

But for UN Judge ad litem Capulong, the impeachment process is but a safety valve for the elite of a liberal-democratic government. “It is apparent that the power centers of society have pushed for impeachment because they fear the anger and growing power of the Filipino masses,” he said.

In dealing with the impeachment crisis, Capulong said administration allies have been successful in using the government’s resources and the powers of the presidency to abort the proceedings at an early stage. They have also successfully blocked witnesses from presenting testimonies through media to avoid trigger events that would provoke the people to exercise people power.

It is unfortunate, Capulong said, that the Opposition is not determined and much less united to resort to people power. 

Recent events show that the Opposition is more inclined to gather the 79 signatures to endorse the amended impeachment complaint in preparation for the plenary session on Monday, Sept. 5, to overturn the decisions of the House Committee on Justice and send the complaint to the Senate for trial. The Opposition has also announced that if it does not get 79 votes, its next move is to appeal the issue to the Supreme Court (SC).

Capulong however said there is a slim chance that the SC would overturn the decisions of the CoJ.

Meanwhile, Bayan Muna Party secretary general Nathanael Santiago said their group, which is one of the complainants and whose three representatives in the House endorsed the amended impeachment complaint, is also wary of bringing the case to the high court “dahil masama ang mga nagiging desiyon ng korte” (The recent decisions of the Supreme Court have been questionable). 

Santiago was referring to the recent decisions of the SC to open the country’s mining areas to foreign companies and the constitutionality of the Expanded-Value Added Tax (E-Vat) which is expected to be enforced mid-September.

The UN Judge ad litem said that people power is in fact the highest form of expression of the sovereign will of the people. This position, he said, was upheld by the SC in two instances – in 1986 when Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino was catapulted into the presidency through a people’s uprising against the Marcos dictatorship; and in 2001 when Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn into office after the ouster of former president Joseph Estrada.

He added that people power is even more ripe and appropriate now because the grounds for the removal of Macapagal-Arroyo are more serious than that of Estrada. Capulong was one of the prosecution lawyers during the impeachment trial of Estrada in 2001 where the former president was charged with receiving illegal gambling payola, among others.

“The issues now are with regards the very legitimacy of the incumbent because she is alleged to have misappropriated government resources,” he said. Complainants of the amended impeachment complaint have alleged that the president used road users’ tax, agriculture and overseas Filipino workers’ funds, and the recovered Marcos loot to fund her electoral campaign in the May 2004 elections. She is also charged with rigging the 2004 elections and abetting gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

Resolving the crisis

Both Maggay and Regalado agree that the imminent death of the impeachment case against the president would not solve the crisis and will in fact only worsen it.

This is the reason why Migrante had earlier called for the ouster of the president. Regalado said that, on Aug. 21, overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong signified their support to oust the president through people power. Over 6,000 OFWs signed the petition in one day alone.

Regalado said their chapters in Saudi Arabia and New York are prepared to welcome the president with big demonstrations calling for her ouster once she visits those places next week.

“They (administration allies in Congress) can kill initiatives but they are not solving any problem. The killing of the impeachment case will not erase the questions regarding the president’s accountability, credibility and legitimacy to rule,” said Maggay.

Maggay also said the basic problems of the country would not be solved even with the removal of Macapagal-Arroyo from power.

Capulong agreed, adding that a Noli de Castro (vice president) takeover would not solve the problem of legitimacy because his election is under a heavy cloud of doubt. “Because of this, he will not regain the trust of the people,” he said.

De Castro is facing election fraud charges at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) filed by Loren Legarda, his closest rival during the May 2004 elections. 

The current situation, Capulong said, justifies the urgency of people power and the formation of a Transitional Council that would express the people’s desire for fundamental changes or immediate reforms as the only means to settle the crisis.

Immediate reforms, he said, should include the revamp of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the repudiation of foreign debts, the punishment of human rights violators and the channeling of enough resources for the basic social needs of the people such as education, health, services, agriculture. Bulatlat

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