Philippine Bar Association: Impeachment the only legal remedy

The impeachment process is the only legal means by which President Arroyo can be removed from office if proven guilty of cheating in last year’s presidential election, the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) said yesterday.

The lawyer’s group, representing the voice of some 2,000 lawyers, announced its stand on the controversies surrounding the present administration as it rejected various unconstitutional means to solving the problem.

PBA president Linda Jimeno said their organization is very much against illegally ousting a president accused of an impeachable offense.

Jimeno said the Philippine Constitution dictates and provides a legal process by which problems over a sitting president can be addressed.

Impeachment should be the only option unless the President steps down voluntarily and the PBA does not believe that she should be forced to step down, she explained.

"Voluntary resignation is different from forcing her to go," Jimeno told The STAR in an interview after issuing an official statement.

Jimeno stressed her organization maintains its unwavering commitment to the rule of law while respecting the fact that the Philippines is a sovereign state in which all power and government authority emanates from the people.

"During these uncertain and turbulent times, extraordinary conditions may call for extraordinary remedies," she said.

However, she noted that the PBA "will never and cannot justify any action that lies outside the sphere of constitutional authority because extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power."

"No matter how laudable the intentions are, the Rule of Law requires that even the best intentions be carried out within the parameters of the Constitution and law."

Jimeno explained that while Mrs. Arroyo had admitted to acts of impropriety that demand accountability from her, we must not be pressured by the calls of some quarters to effect change in the current political leadership through extra-constitutional means that will only undermine the democratic institutions and sow anarchy and violence among the people.

"It is with absolute certainty that our Constitution is sufficient to address all the issues from which this controversy spawns, that the feared resort to extra-constitutional methods of resolving it is neither necessary nor legally permissible," she further stressed.

Mrs. Arroyo’s political enemies loyal to former President Joseph Estrada have stepped up calls for her resignation following her admission last week that she had improperly called an election official during last year’s presidential vote count in what she described as a bid to protect her votes.

Mrs. Arroyo, however, denied opposition claims that she attempted to rig last year’s presidential election and rejected calls for her to step down.

Hours before Mrs. Arroyo’s address last week, Manila lawyer Oliver Lozano filed an impeachment complaint against the President demanding that Congress oust her for "betrayal of public trust," one of several grounds for impeachment cited by the Constitution.

The accusations were compounded by allegations that her husband, son and brother-in-law took payoffs from illegal gambling syndicates.

Mrs. Arroyo won a narrow victory in the polls over her closest rival, opposition frontrunner Fernando Poe Jr.

Poe accused Mrs. Arroyo of robbing him of victory. His electoral protest was junked by the Supreme Court shortly after he died of a stroke in December.

One watchdog group, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, has suggested that Mrs. Arroyo request the Supreme Court, which settles electoral disputes regarding the presidency, to validate the results of the May 2004 vote.

Group chairman Dante Jimenez said this might erase the "perception of possible cheating in the minds of the Filipino people, who are the ones most affected by the present leadership crisis."