BY WENDELL VIGILIA

THE House is set to uphold the decision of the committee on justice last week to trash the latest impeachment complaint against President Arroyo in the plenary vote tonight.

"I don’t think a reversal will happen," said Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday.

A plenary vote of one-third or 79 of the 238 congressmen is needed to reverse the decision and send the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.

Majority leader Arthur Defensor (Iloilo, 3rd District) said majority have decided to affirm the decision.

"The opposition will not be able to muster support to reverse the ruling," he said. "At most, I don’t want to predict, marami na ‘yung 25 to 30 (who will vote for reversal)."

Defensor said he is ready to defend the committee report on the strength of the arguments which their debate panel presented to panel chair Rep. Matias Defensor (Lakas, Quezon City).

"Inaasahan ko na aaprubahan ng plenaryo ang committee report. Itataguyod nila ang abuse of discretion ng committee," said Rep. Risa Hontiveros (Akbayan).

She said if the committee report is affirmed, the House will be a party to the justice panel’s abuse of discretion which would be their (minority bloc) basis for appeal before the Supreme Court.

The impeachment complaint was dismissed for lack of substance last Wednesday by a vote of 42-8. It accuses the President of graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violations of the Constitution.