MANILA, 25 August 2005 — The campaign to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took a new twist yesterday with the pro-impeachment bloc in the House of Representatives winning five signatories and losing one in return.
Five dismayed members of the so-called “conscience bloc” signed the amended impeachment complaint against Arroyo, bringing its endorsers to 47 but still 32 signatures short to commute the complaint to Senate for trial.
Arroyo is facing possible impeachment before Congress on charges of election fraud, corruption, and human rights violations.
At least one-third vote or 79 signatures are needed from the 236-member lower chamber to transmit the complaint to Senate for trial.
Representatives Gilbert Remulla (Cavite), Robert “Ace” Barbers (Surigao del Sur), Edmund Reyes (Marinduque), Robert Jaworski Jr. (Pasig), and Renato Magtubo (Partido ng Manggagawa) signed late on Tuesday the amended complaint.
Remulla, Barbers, and Reyes are members of the majority bloc and are holding committee chairmanships in the House.
“After studying the issue on this impeachment, we reached the point that we have to make a stand on this,” said Barbers, chairman of the House committee on accounts. “We want to give the president her rightful day in court,” he said as he asked his colleagues to endorse and support the amended complaint.
At a joint press conference Tuesday night, the lawmakers also called on the House justice committee, tasked to hear the impeachment complaint, to endorse the revised complaint.
Reyes, chairman of the House committee on education, said some administration lawmakers were asked not to sign the complaint originally filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano and amended by opposition and militant legislators.
Yesterday, however, Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay withdrew his signature from the motion to impeach as the Committee on Justice resumed debates on which of three impeachment cases should be taken up.
Magsaysay, who had previously said that he was offered bribes not to sign the impeachment case, cited family reasons for his decision. “I got nothing in exchange for my decision to withdraw the impeachment endorsement,” Magsaysay told reporters. He said he had no personal knowledge that Arroyo cheated her way back into office in last year’s elections, but that he may change his mind again if debates convinced him there was “probable cause” in the complaint.
Magsaysay, a nephew of the late President Ramon Magsaysay and grandson of the late colorful politician Senator Amang Rodriguez who represents the Association of Volunteer Educators, said he suffered sleepless nights since he signed the complaint two weeks ago.
Opposition lawmakers said that Representative Magsaysay’s withdrawal might have been timed to blunt any momentum that would result from the new signatories. They said Magsaysay had been talking for the last few weeks about “pressure from Malaca?ang.”
“He informed us about his decision and I respect that,” said Francis Escudero, an opposition leader. “It was only sad that Malaca?ang (the presidential palace) is putting so much pressure on lawmakers to junk the impeachment complaint.”
Opposition leaders said they feared about a dozen more may follow suit, making it virtually impossible for them to reach the 79 votes needed to impeach Arroyo.
The opposition has accused Arroyo of using the government’s financial clout to shore up her support in Congress and prevent a Senate impeachment trial that could end her four-year presidency.
After three hours of debate, the committee adjourned without reaching a decision. The hearing will resume next Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, justice committee chairman Simeon Datumanong said the 95-member committee would select which of three complaints filed against Arroyo would be heard. But the opposition was hoping that the committee would instead go directly to the deliberations on the form and substance of the complaints — one filed by Lozano, the amended version of Lozano’s case, and another filed by lawyer Rizal Lopez.
Voting 54-24, with three abstentions, the committee has agreed to tackle first the prejudicial questions before the form and substance of the impeachment complaints.
“I hope that they will not kill the amended complaint in the coming days now that it has started to get more signatures,” Reyes said.
“But if you will notice, the process in the justice committee was not only slow but it’s not going in the direction of uncovering the truth,” he said.
Remulla said he was willing to risk his committee chairmanship if this was the price for signing the impeachment complaint.
Remulla is the chairman of the House public information committee, the lead committee in the wiretapping probe.
“She (Arroyo) should be given a chance to defend herself in the Senate,” he said.
Jaworski said the group’s decision was not a question of loyalty to party or to the president. “Win or lose, this is the right thing to do.”
The lawmakers believed some of their colleagues in the administration group would follow suit. (Input from Inquirer News Service & Agencies)
