In what could be a portent of things to come, the committee, which is dominated by the administration bloc, voted strictly along party lines to junk the opposition’s motion that the panel proceed directly to determining the form and substance of each of the three complaints against the President.
The justice panel has opted to hold further debates on the so-called seven "prejudicial issues" revolving around the question of which of the three petitions it should recognize; whether the opposition’s amended complaint subsumed the original pleading filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, who had accepted the amendments; and how Mrs. Arroyo’s answer to the Lozano petition affects the opposition’s amended complaint.
Meanwhile, the opposition’s amended impeachment complaint received a much-needed shot in the arm last night when four members of the majority bloc and a party-list representative endorsed it.
Representatives Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte, Edmund Reyes of Marinduque, Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, Robert Jaworski Jr. of Pasig City, and Rene Magtubo of party-list Partido ng Manggagawa announced their decision to endorse the complaint in a news conference.
Barbers said he and his colleagues decided to join the ranks of endorsers "to give President Arroyo her rightful day in court."
He said they are asking other House members to support the complaint and the committee on justice to recommend that it be forwarded to the Senate for trial.
Reyes said their decision was prompted by the direction the justice committee was taking in hearing the three impeachment petitions. "It is obvious to us and probably to the public that the committee is on the way to killing the amended complaint," he said.
For his part, Jaworski said it is only through a Senate trial that the truth behind the allegations of "cheating, lying and stealing" against Mrs. Arroyo could be brought out.
The vote by the justice committee could effectively prolong the impeachment process since the committee must now go back to determining the form and substance of the complaint it will eventually choose to consider.
Fifty-four administration allies voted to defeat the motion to go directly to the issue of form and substance, while 24 impeachment petitioners supported it. Three others abstained. The lopsided vote capped two weeks of debate over what some members considered a "non-issue."
After the count, Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras said: "I do not want to think that the release of billions in road users’ tax has to do with this overwhelming vote."
Deputy Minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who presented the motion to go directly to evaluating the form and substance of each complaint, said the committee decided to take the "long, circuitous route."
"Instead of taking the short cut, they chose the long cut to nowhere," he said.
He conceded that the committee decision was a "victory for the accused, the President, who is buying time aside from buying votes with the road users’ tax."
"Anything that buys her time, anything that prolongs this process, is to her advantage," Cayetano said.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the vice chairman of the justice committee who raised the prejudicial issues, said the vote "was a triumph for the rule of law and the Constitution."
He said resolving these questions "provides the roadmap for an orderly handling of the impeachment complaints."
Lagman is the brother of the late communist hit squad leader Filemon "Popoy" Lagman. Formerly an activist lawmaker, he is now a staunch Arroyo ally.
Immediately after the vote, former Arroyo Cabinet member and now Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, who chairs the justice committee, declared a long recess that lasted more than 30 minutes.
When the hearing resumed, Datumanong told his colleagues that a small group of members from the majority and the minority was trying to simplify the "prejudicial issues" that Lagman presented last month in the form of seven questions.
Actually, committee members have been discussing these issues since last week in debates over the Cayetano motion. For those belonging to the majority, it is the original Lozano complaint that takes precedence. This was also the President’s argument in her legal answer to the Lozano pleading. For the minority, it is the amended petition that should be considered.
"We are trying to have an understanding to reduce the list (of prejudicial issues to the barest minimum to enable the committee to move faster," Datumanong said.
He said the small group would meet again today since "some more details needed to be discussed."
Lagman himself hinted that the complex issues he raised could spark additional lengthy debates and prolong the impeachment process.
"We are trying to reduce these issues to a number conducive to expeditious proceedings," he said.
However, Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella, one of the three who abstained from voting, said once the committee resolves the so-called prejudicial issues, it will go back to determining the form and substance of the complaint it will choose to recognize.
He suggested that the panel go directly to assessing the form and substance of each petition.
The two others who abstained were Antonino Roman of Bataan and Jesus Crispin Remulla of Cavite. Earlier, during the debate, Roman said he considered the prejudicial questions as a non-issue since the committee was free to choose which complaint to consider.
Antipolo City Rep. Victor Sumulong proposed that the committee, instead of debating over Lagman’s prejudicial questions, vote on whether to consider the original Lozano complaint, the second petition filed by Manila lawyer Jose Lopez "and/or" the opposition’s amended complaint.
To simplify matters, Northern Samar Rep. Romualdo Vicencio moved that "we adopt the first complaint (of Lozano)," but Datumanong ignored his motion.
Minority Leader Francis Escudero said the "lingering confusion proves us right: that the committee on justice should take the shorter route of going directly into the form and substance of each complaint."
Noticing that it was five minutes before 4 p.m., when the House was scheduled to begin its session, Eastern Samar Rep. Marcelino Libanan, another staunch Arroyo ally, moved to adjourn the hearing.
Makati Rep. Agapito Aquino objected, and urged his colleagues to extend their meeting by one hour to hammer out an agreement on the complex prejudicial issues, "since nothing is really happening in the session."
Datumanong, however, ignored Aquino and promptly adjourned the hearing.
After the justice committee hearing, House members convened in plenary session for less than 30 minutes before calling it a day and going home.
At Malacañang, presidential adviser on political affairs Gabriel Claudio said there was no undue delay in the impeachment hearings by the House committee on justice.
Claudio said the committee was trying to be thorough in its deliberations, particularly the voting on prejudicial questions, which he said was meant to guide and enlighten the panel members.
"There was no undue delay. This (voting) is certainly well within their prerogative. I think they have made a significant stride (in the impeachment hearings)," Claudio said in a telephone interview.
In a related development, the House subpoenaed last night the cellular phone records of the President and former elections commission Virgilio Garcillano for May and June last year.
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. called a news conference last night to sign the subpoena issued to Gerardo Ablaza Jr., president of mobile phone service provider Globe Telecoms. The issuance of the subpoena was recommended by the five committees in inquiring into the "Hello Garci" tape controversy.
De Venecia also signed a final subpoena for former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Samuel Ong to attend Monday’s hearing. Last July, Ong claimed he possessed the "mother of all Garci" tapes. — With Paolo Romero