All sorts of barriers are being put up by the congressman-allies of President Arroyo in killing the amended impeachment complaint filed by the minority bloc, with human rights activist-turned-Arroyo protector and defender Albay Rep. Edsel Lagman immediately asking the House justice committee to first determine which of the three impeachment complaints would be the “legal” complaint that would be deliberated on, invoking alleged House rules while Malacañang allies attempted to “gag” the minority members and prevent them from participating in the process.
As if given the cue by Lagman, the lawyers of the President quickly submitted a motion to quash the amended impeachment complaint as well as a third one, taking the position that it is the original Lozano complaint that should be deliberated upon for form and substance.
The Arroyo allies know that the Lozano complaint would be quickly dismissed by the justice committee.
An uproar from lawmakers and the general audience came about after an “unusual “ ruling by the chairman, Rep. Simeon Datumanong, who immediately called for an executive session and a suspension of the hearing until Monday next week.
Datumanong ruled that non-members of the committee are barred from participating, which ruling immediately drew oppostion members of the minority, which has only six in the committee.
Disgusting, disgusting display. How can people have faith and put their trust in the impeachment process kung puro stonewalling, panloloko at cover ups lang ang ginagawa ng majority allies ni Gloria Macapagal Arroyo?
More details re this here and here.
Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano called it the admin's "Yo-yo tactic".
Mukhang totoo pala yung balita ni JB Baylon, where JDV was said to have remarked that the GMA impeachment will fail "whatever the evidence".
And their tactic is to delay and delay, para humina ang interes ng publiko. Here's how they plan to do it.
This is why Arroyo’s allies in the House are keeping the option of strangling the impeachment complaint at the House committee on justice. "Creeping" impeachment has been successfully blocked. There will be no automatic transmittal to the Senate even if the magic number of 79 endorsers is reached.
The committee on justice has 60 session days to come out with determination on the sufficiency of form and content of the complaint. That gives the committee time to dribble the ball possibly well into December.
After that, the findings go to the plenary. Whatever the findings, a vote by 79 members of the House is still needed to send the complaint to the Senate for trial. And if Gloria could steal an election wholesale, she could buy House members retail.
The Palace game plan is obviously to stretch out the proceedings in the expectation that the public will in time weary of the whole thing. If her allies can pull this off, Gloria would be in the clear all the way to 2010.
It’s not a bad game plan. But it’s based on the assumption that Gloria can continue fooling all the people all the time, an assumption difficult to make given the widespread perception she is the queen of lies and deceit.
I hope the admin allies will not make a huge waste of time out of the impeachment process. Sana wag nilang gaguhin ang mga mamamayan.
The reason why I'm for resignation or impeachment is because I want the system to work, even if my head tells me na rigged ang impeachment process because GMA has the numbers, just like in the canvassing of votes last year.
I don't want any shortcuts in removing pandak. I don't want the military or civil society to install a junta or a coup to oust the fake president. But I must admit that it is getting more and more difficult to keep the faith as long as Arroyo's allies are in charge of Congress and the impeachment hearings and we have a pro-Arroyo mainstream media that still refuses to tell the whole truth about Arroyo and her goons (so unlike the treatment they gave Erap and Lacson).
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