Militant lawmakers support minority purge

Ten militant party-list representatives who belong to the minority bloc in the House of Representatives are supporting the decision of their group to purge its ranks of those who did not support the impeachment process against President Arroyo.

"We are behind the decision of the group led by Minority Leader Chiz (Francis) Escudero to undertake a purge of the so-called renegades," Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales told a news forum at the Serye Café in Quezon City.

She said she and her colleagues felt that at least four of those stripped of their posts in the House and its committees should have voted Thursday last week for impeaching Mrs. Arroyo.

"The four held positions of leadership in the minority and we had expected them to join the rest of the bloc in impeaching the President," she said.

She was referring to Representatives Luis Asistio and Oscar Malapitan of Caloocan City, Antonio Serapio of Valenzuela City and Vicente Crisologo of Quezon City.

The four have been stripped of their posts as deputy minority leaders. The minority will nominate their replacements in plenary session next week. As a matter of procedure, the House approves such nominations.

Asistio and his colleagues stayed away from last year’s and this year’s impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo. Last year, all members of the minority, except the Asistio group, signed the opposition-drafted impeachment complaint.

They were no-shows during last year’s and last week’s plenary votes.

In contrast, many members of the majority bloc, including Rosales and nine party-list colleagues, voted for impeaching Mrs. Arroyo last year. Last week, like the Asistio group, several of these majority members were no-shows.

Rosales said many of her minority colleagues want those who have been stripped of their posts, particularly the Asistio group, to leave the minority bloc.

"They feel that we will no longer be comfortable with them, and they will not be comfortable with us. I share that sentiment," she said.

As a result of their decision last year to support the opposition initiative to impeach the President, the majority bloc deprived Rosales some other party-list representatives of their committee chairmanships.

Rosales lost her chairmanship of the committee on human rights, while Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo was replaced as chairman of the peace and unification committee.

After last September’s failed impeachment process, Rosales, Ocampo and 11 other Akbayan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, and Partido Manggagawa colleagues joined the minority.

The majority was not as hard on its other members who supported last year’s impeachment process.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers kept his post as accounts committee chairman, while Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. stayed on as head of the suffrage committee. Cynthia Villar of Las Piñas City was not stripped of her chairmanship of the committee on higher and technical education.

Last week, Locsin voted with the majority for killing the new impeachment complaint, while Barbers and Villar did not show up.