New impeach move vs GMA won’t prosper—Erap

Yes, you read it right. Even deposed President Joseph Estrada does not believe the renewed bid by the Opposition to impeach President Arroyo will prosper in the administration-controlled Congress. As far as Estrada sees the political situation in the country, I should say, from the comforts of his rest house detention in Tanay, Rizal, such new impeachment attempt by anti-administration solons would be next to futile.

At a glance, one would think that Estrada appears to be on a reconciliatory mode with Mrs. Arroyo to have that kind of thinking. But when I pressed him why he has such seemingly favorable forecast at this point on Mrs. Arroyo’s being possibly impeached anew, Estrada riposted: "It’s all settled. They (administration House allies) have all been paid for, some even got paid in advance."

Many of the House solons have already cried "foul" on similar allegations echoed by other anti-Arroyo leaders. Rabid defenders of Malacanang Palace snarled at equally rabid Arroyo-bashers for making up such allegation as an excuse for their own failure to gather the required votes to impeach President Arroyo.

No amount of denials from the administration House solons, however, could convince Estrada. He believes the missing $628 million, or P38 billion proceeds turned over to the Philippine government out of the Swiss bank account of the late President Ferdinand Marcos had been used to "kill" the first impeachment move against Mrs. Arroyo. He pointed out in particular to the alleged misuse of some P728 million in fertilizer funds that went into questionable transactions in a number of congressional districts across the country.

The first impeachment case was successfully "killed" by administration allies at the Lower House by sheer numbers game where the anti-Arroyo Congressmen got only 51 signatures. And at the end of the process, the first impeachment push was finally shot down at the House and the Opposition lost more signatories like Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos who did not show up on that crucial voting day in September last year.

Estrada recalled the testimony at the Senate hearing of Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri regarding the inquiry on the alleged fertilizer fund scam. Neri admitted the bulk of the Marcos money or P30 billion set aside by law under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) have already been released and distributed to various implementing agencies that included the Department of Agriculture where Undersecretary Joselyn "Jocjoc" Bolante remains "wanted" by the outstanding Senate subpoena requiring him to shed light on the purported fertilizer fund scam. With so much government resources at the disposal of the Arroyo administration, Estrada doubts any fair chance of a new impeach attempt could move forward at this juncture.

Estrada impressed upon the futility of this new impeachment attempt on Mrs. Arroyo’s wedding godson, House minority leader, Rep. Francis Escudero (NPC, Sorsogon). Being the acknowledged leader of the United Opposition, Escudero sounded out Estrada about this during a visit to him last May 6 in Tanay where they talked on the possible new impeachment case against President Arroyo.

The meeting in Tanay took place a few days after Escudero announced their group’s intention at the House of Representatives to initiate a new impeachment move against the President. The young Opposition leader cited they will include in the new articles of impeachment complaint the three successive decisions handed down by the Supreme Court (SC) that declared unconstitutional one after the other the presidential fiats by Mrs. Arroyo. These were, the voiding of certain provisions of Executive Order (EO) 464 that barred Cabinet and other Executive, police and military officials from attending congressional hearings without prior approval by the President; disallowing the use of the term calibrated preemptive response (CPR) but upholding the no permit-no rally under Batas Pambansa 880; and, striking out the provision on the President’s power to invoke "edicts" to take over public utilities and warrantless arrests implemented during Mrs. Arroyo’s declaration of a state of emergency under Proclamation 1017.

Escudero, a young brilliant lawyer, argues double jeopardy does not apply in the new impeachment case they would file against her even if they still use the same old articles of impeachment and the new charges they would add to it.

This early, a new impeachment complaint is being worked out by anti-Arroyo Congressmen in anticipation of the scheduled lapse of the one-year prescriptive period to initiate this constitutional process in order to remove from office a sitting President. Escudero vowed to first gather as much as 79 signatories as the required number of members of Congress to automatically elevate to the Senate their new impeachment case.

Escudero vowed to use the next one and a half months left for them to complete the collection of the signatures by the time the third and last regular sessions of the 13th Congress open on July 24. They will make sure they won’t be beaten to the draw again in the filing of impeachment complaint by Marcos lawyer Oliver Lozano who up to now remains suspect to have done this upon imprimatur from his unknown handlers linked all the way to Malacañang Palace.

After that meeting with Estrada though, Escudero is now more realistic in his public statements about their plans of initiating a new impeachment charge against his "Ninang Gloria." Escudero agreed with Estrada the filing of a new impeachment case against Mrs. Arroyo would just be like making a political statement that’s good for publicity. "We will just be used again by some unscrupulous, manipulative colleagues to make money or gain concessions from the administration," Escudero bluntly put it.

I could just imagine the loud howls of protestations coming all the way from the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City. But this was a bitter lesson learned from the first impeachment proceedings the Opposition attempted against Mrs. Arroyo.

The President got away unimpeached from the "lying, cheating and stealing" charges after that infamous "Hello Garci" wiretapping tapes on the alleged fraud-tainted May 2004 presidential elections that triggered it all. The administration tagged these "Hello Garci" tapes as part of an alleged overall scheme by anti-government forces to bring down the Arroyo presidency. It should be clearer now why there are renewed attempts to demonize Estrada anew to his alleged newly discovered plunder scheme and more of his philandering activities while still in office.

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