House opposition to GMA: Prepare for impeachment

With the recent Supreme Court decisions declaring several of her issuances and orders unconstitutional, President Arroyo should prepare for a new impeachment process, the opposition in the House of Representatives said yesterday.

Minority Leader Francis Escudero told reporters that the three decisions of the high court would be additional grounds for a new impeachment complaint against the President.

"Mrs. Arroyo’s Executive Order 464, her Proclamation 1017 and her calibrated preemptive response policy, which the Supreme Court (SC) struck down in whole or in part as unconstitutional, reflect a propensity on the part of the President to flout the Constitution, for which she must be held accountable," Escudero said.

Such tendency scandalizes "decent and right-thinking Filipinos, including Supreme Court justices," Escudero said.

He said Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban summed up the people’s collective outrage over such propensity when he declared in a separate opinion on Proclamation 1017 that the administration was playing with fire that could bring the entire house down by stretching the limits of its powers under the Constitution.

Deputy Minority Leader Rolex Suplico said he and his opposition colleagues intend to use the SC rulings against the President.

"She should now prepare for the forthcoming impeachment process after the expiration of the one-year ban on June 26," he said.

The ban took effect last year when the House referred three impeachment complaints against Mrs. Arroyo to its justice committee. The chamber subsequently killed all three complaints.

While opposition congressmen warned the President to prepare for the next impeachment process, they are not yet sure if they would at all file a new complaint against her.

"We won’t do it unless we have 79 signatures to send a complaint to the Senate for trial," said Escudero.

"We don’t want to be used again by some colleagues to gain concessions, including additional pork barrel and appointments for relatives and friends, from Malacañang," he said.

The minority had only more than 50 votes for the Arroyo impeachment last year. Four of its members did not even support the move, while another could not be located when her presence mattered most — during the vote. One endorser of the opposition’s impeachment complaint withdrew his signature.

If the tug-of-war on Charter change were a portent of things to come, the opposition would again fail to impeach the President, unless the recent Supreme Court decisions prompt more congressmen to support a new impeachment process.

Escudero’s minority collected 52 signatures for a resolution that opposes the majority’s plan to bypass senators on Cha-cha, asserting that it would violate the Constitution. The majority, ignoring warnings about a possible constitutional challenge, gathered 173 signatures for its bypass plan, though that number is 22 short of the 195 votes it would need to railroad Cha-cha.

Escudero said the President would again move heaven and earth to frustrate a new impeachment process.

"She would do all she could to prevent a complaint from reaching the Senate for trial. With the mood of the Senate and her transgressions of the Constitution as evidenced by the Supreme Court rulings, she could lose her job and go down in disgrace," he said.

In preparation of the next impeachment process, the opposition leader said he hoped the Supreme Court would expedite its decision on a pending case arising from last year’s failed move to oust Mrs. Arroyo.

Escudero said such a ruling would clarify once and for all what the House should do in case there are two or more complaints against the President or any other impeachable officer.