CITING paramount public interest, former Cebu
Rep. Clavel Martinez yesterday asked the Supreme Court to
resolve a petition that she and a group of lawyers filed in
September 2005 questioning the ratification of a House committee
report junking an amended complaint for impeachment against
President Arroyo.
In a motion for resolution, Martinez asked
the SC to rule on the validity of multiple impeachment
complaints against the President and when an impeachment
complaint is deemed filed.
Martinez also urged the high court to rule
whether the House can dismiss the supplemental impeachment
complaints especially when one of them is filed to take
advantage of the constitutional one-year ban on the filing of
impeachment complaints.
The move came in the light of the filing of
impeachment complaint by lawyer Roel Pulido Oct. 5 and the
supplemental impeachment complaint of the United Opposition and
people’s organizations filed Nov. 5.
Citing the Pulido complaint, Martinez said
that the issues that have been raised in the case (a complaint
filed by Oliver Lozano) have resurfaced.
"Considering the paramount public interest in
the instant petition, that is, the denial of the public’s
constitutional right to hold accountable a president accused of
wrongdoing, the Supreme Court should not shun its responsibility
to eradicate whatever obstruction that is preventing the public
from the exercise of their rights," the petition said.
In her 2005 petition, Martinez claimed the
House gravely abused its discretion when it dismissed the
amended complaint filed by opposition bloc following the filing
of the original complaint by Lozano.
The House in plenary by a vote of 158-51 ratified the
decision of the committee on justice to treat the amended
complaint as separate and distinct from the Lozano complaint.
This effectively banned the complaint from proceeding further. –
Evangeline de Vera
