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THE
Malacañang-dominated House of Representatives is
expected to finally and formally “lay to rest” the
impeachment case against President Arroyo on Monday when
it is tackled by the chamber in plenary session.
Lakas
Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, a member of the Committee on
Justice that earlier junked the impeachment complaint
filed by lawyer Roel Pulido, said the majority will
surely adopt the committee decision primarily because
the complaint has no basis and that the opposition has
no sufficient number.
Meanwhile, reacting to speculation it was engaged in a
counterharassment against House Speaker Jose de Venecia
Jr. in order to pressure him to work out, as in the
past, the dropping of any impeachment case against Mrs.
Arroyo, Malacañang on Sunday distanced itself from the
plan of the Presidential Commission on Good Government
to revive a behest loan case against de Venecia.
Chief
Presidential Counsel Sergio Apostol said in a phone
interview with reporters the PCGG decision, based on de
Venecia’s failure to pay back his $120-million
government loan in the 1980s, is an independent PCGG
move.
“Malacañang has nothing to do with it. I don’t know why
it is being revived in the first place. That’s an
independent move of the PCGG,” Apostol said.
The PCGG
said in a letter to Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera
the case can be reinstated after the Speaker failed to
comply with an agreement he forged with the PCGG in
1988, to pay back the $120 million that his firm,
Landoil Corp., obtained from Philippine Export Guaranty
in the 1970s.
Then
President Marcos owned 45 percent of Landoil’s
outstanding capital stock.
Relations between the Speaker and the President, tested
twice in two impeachment complaints that de Venecia
successfully put down, had been strained since Joey de
Venecia III, the Speaker’s son, accused the President’s
husband of involvement in the controversial ZTE
broadband deal.
The
political crisis that ensued led to the filing of a new
impeachment complaint against the President by lawyer
Ruel Pulido, but the House opposition has belittled this
as a “weak” case that’s simply meant to “innoculate”
Mrs. Arroyo from a “real” case, considering the rule
barring filing of any impeachment complaint within a
year after an earlier one has been filed.
At least
a one-third vote is needed to reverse the earlier
decision of the justice committee, headed by Lakas Rep.
Matias Defensor of Quezon City—another ally of Arroyo—to
dismiss the Pulido complaint.
“Wala
namang problema iyan dahil maa-affirm iyong
decision ng committee. Wala naman kasing
basis iyong complaint and besides, they do not
have the numbers,” Lagman told BusinessMirror in a
telephone interview.
Even
several members of the opposition and militant
legislators critical of Arroyo recognized that the
complaint was a “sham.”
On
November 14, two days after ruling that it is sufficient
in form, the Defensor committee, voting 43-1, junked the
Pulido complaint, finding it insufficient in substance.
The deliberation was boycotted by the minority.
Independent Rep. Edgar San Luis of Laguna, who endorsed
the complaint, was the only one who voted against
dismissal.
Voting
29-7, the committee upheld an earlier decision of
Defensor to return the supplemental complaint of Adel
Tamano, lawyer and spokesman of the United Opposition.
The
walkout was also prompted by the rejection of the motion
of Nacionalista Party-United Opposition Rep. Teofisto
Guingona III of Bukidnon to disqualify from the
proceedings those committee members who attended an
October 11 meeting in Malacañang last month where
alleged bribery took place to “kill” any impeachment
move against the President. |
