BY WENDELL VIGILIA and
ASHZEL HACHERO
CRITICS of President Arroyo are set to file
impeachment complaints three times in as many days starting
today to plug all possible loopholes.
The ban on filing such a complaint expires
today.
The Black and White Movement will lead
people’s organizations in filing a complaint at 4 p.m. today, a
year after lawyer Roel Pulido filed the third impeachment
complaint.
UP Prof. Harry Roque said the other
complaints will be filed on 12:01 a.m. tomorrow and 9 a.m.
Monday.
"Hindi mo alam kung kailan sasabihin yung one
year bar (on filing impeachment complaints). We will be filing
similar petitions kasi tatlo lang yung pwedeng maging period ng
one-year bar," he said.
The Constitution bars the "filing" of more
than one impeachment complaint against an impeachable official
within a year.
Roque said among the complainants is
businessman Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, son of former Speaker
Jose de Venecia Jr., and the whistleblower of the $329 million
broadband contract with China’s ZTE Corp.
Roque said Rep. Teofisto Guingona (NP,
Bukidnon), party list Reps. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna and
Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan have already expressed their
intention to endorse the complaint.
Roque said the new complaints are anchored on
the anomalous ZTE broadband deal; the government’s aborted
memorandum of agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
over ancestral domain; the multi-billion swine, fertilizer and
seeds scam in the Department of Agriculture; the multi-billion
peso NorthRail project; and the controversial Joint Maritime
Seismic Understanding regarding the exploration of oil and other
resources at the South China Sea.
Speaker Prospero Nograles said he would order
the staff of Secretary General Marilyn Yap to accept the
complaint even if it is filed during the weekend.
"It will be accepted and immediately acted on
once it is endorsed by congressmen. It will go through the
process," he said.
Nograles was coy when asked how the House
plans to dispose of the complaint.
"Impeachment is a political process," he
said, hinting that numbers will figure prominently.
Pulido’s complaint was endorsed by Laguna
Rep. Edgar San Luis. In 2005 and 2006, lawyer Oliver Lozano
filed an impeach rap against the President. The three complaints
were dismissed by House for insufficiency of substance.
Malacañang dismissed the new impeachment
complaint as a part of another empty accusation and propaganda.
Gabriel Claudio, the President’s political adviser, said:
"The case will not fly for at least two reasons: One, it is
bereft of any legal grounds, for example, the President cannot
be held legally liable for any of the issues raised; two, the
proximity of the 2010 elections and the current global financial
turmoil make such a move look absolutely unnecessary,
distractive and destructive," he said. – With Jocelyn
Montemayor
