This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 30, September 4-10, 2005
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 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. 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. 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 © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Disgust over Junking of Impeachment Mounts
BulatlatDeath blow