MANILA, PHILIPPINES: In a move admittedly more “symbolic” than legal, groups seeking to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Monday (5 Nov) filed two impeachment cases, one of which sought to add muscle to the purportedly “sham” complaint initiated by lawyer Roel Pulido.

The complaints--which came two hours apart and shortly after the House of Representatives resumed its regular session--sought to test Arroyo’s purported one-year immunity from another impeachment proceeding.

The prescription supposedly began after Pulido’s three-page complaint was filed and referred to the committee on justice on 11 Oct.

The House secretary general received the first complaint at 11:55am aimed at “supplementing” the impeachment case filed earlier against resigned Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr by Iloilo Vice Gov Rolex Suplico. The case now included Arroyo.

The second complaint, which was lodged by the United Opposition (UNO), was meant as an “addendum or supplement” to the Pulido complaint, according to its spokesperson Adel Tamano.

UNO’s “supplement” to the Pulido complaint was based on Arroyo’s alleged participation in the US$329-million National Broadband Network project and the alleged distribution of cash gifts to congressmen in Malacañang.

Tamano said it was sent directly to the committee on justice, not to the secretary general’s office, because it was only intended to supplement the Pulido complaint. It was officially received at 2:20pm.

“It gives substance to the Pulido complaint,” Tamano told reporters. “We want the impeachment proceeding to be genuine and credible that’s why we are participating in it.”

Tamano, the lone signatory in the 38-page complaint, admitted that the opposition was “forced” to move only because of Pulido’s initiative.

Palace dismisses new cases

Malacañang, the Presidential Palace, shrugged off the new cases.

“Despite this minor distraction, the President will remain laser-focused on her principal task of governing this nation,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

It was business as usual Monday for Arroyo, who attended a book launch organised by a group of call centers in Makati City. She stayed for an hour, endorsing the group’s roadmap which was to see to it that the country gets 10 per cent global market share of the business process outsourcing by 2010.

Some opposition congressmen distanced themselves from the twin complaints.

“The minority is not involved in the filing and preparation of these cases,” Senior Deputy Minority Leader Roilo Golez said.

Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros expressed reservations over the “legal standing” of the two initiatives, considering Arroyo’s purported one-year immunity from another impeachment complaint.

Study complaints

In a caucus Monday, minority lawmakers agreed to first study the complaints before deciding on whether to support any of them, according to Cagayan de Oro Rep Rufus Rodriguez.

He said the group would await another impeachment case being readied by the Bayan Muna party-list group.

“We were forced to do it,” Tamano said. “Assuming that the Pulido complaint is hao siao (bogus), what should the opposition do? Should we just stand by and say it’s hao siao and do nothing about it? If we do that then the impeachable officer gets one-year protection.”

Tamano acknowledged that the reinforced Pulido complaint might still generate no significant support from both majority and minority congressmen. “It’s symbolic. We’re trying to set an example.”

Culpable violation

In the supplement, Tamano said Arroyo “committed culpable violations of the Constitution and graft and corruption, and betrayed public trust when she abetted and/or tolerated the commission of a crime” in connection with the NBN project.

He said Arroyo “committed bribery and engaged in graft and corruption” in the alleged cash distribution. He said it was meant to bribe congressmen “for the purpose of dismissing the Pulido impeachment complaint and hasten (its) referral to the justice committee to prevent the filing of a more substantive impeachment complaint.”

The complaint would balloon to 60 pages if annexes--such as newspaper clippings, Jose “Joey” De Venecia III’s affidavit, and certified true copies of the Senate hearing on the NBN scandal--were included, according to Tamano.

UNO took the President to task for allegedly “not doing anything” about the alleged bribe offer reported to her by former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri. The offer was allegedly made by Abalos.

Bribe probe

“At the very least, the bribe offer … should have led to an investigation about the culpability of Mr Abalos,” according to the complaint.

The supplemental complaint also cited First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo’s alleged participation in the project bagged by China’s ZTE Corp. De Venecia III, son of the Speaker, had alleged that he had been asked by the President’s husband to “back off” from the project.

“With the involvement of her very own husband, it can well be said that she is in fact part and parcel of the same conspiracy to grant ZTE the NBN contract,” UNO said in the complaint.

On the cash gifts, the group said the “respondent and her agents have bastardised the hallowed grounds of Malacañang Palace, the seat of power, and prostituted it into a shoddy den where bribes are licentiously given.”

It was referring to the report that around 190 congressmen received between 200,000 pesos ($4,618) and 500,000 pesos ($11,547) cash during a meeting with Arroyo on Oct 11, the same day the Pulido complaint was sent to the committee on justice.

Pulido case

Quezon City Rep Matias Defensor, justice committee chair, Monday said a supplemental complaint “can be considered”, but made it clear that a new complaint would fall under the one-year ban.

A new complaint will involve “a subject totally alien to the old complaint” while a supplement will provide only “additional evidence” to an existing complaint, he said.

Defensor said the committee might tackle the Pulido complaint within the week.

Tamano said the UNO complaint would not violate the one-year ban, arguing that the Constitution prohibited only more than one impeachment proceeding against the same official within a year.

“We already have an impeachment proceeding pending at the committee on justice,” he told reporters. “Our filing of an addendum or supplement does not make it more than one impeachment proceeding.”

Among those who signed the Suplico initiative were lawyer Harry Roque Jr, Angelito Banayo, former Transportation Secretary Josefina Lichauco, Ma Serena Diokno, Consuelo Joaquin Paz, Manuel Baviera, Roel Garcia and other civil society leaders.

‘We can’t give up’

“We refuse to be helpless; we can’t give up on our country. This is our way of saying that we’re fighting back,” said ophthalmologist Dominga “Minguita” Padilla.

Fr Joe Dizon said the complaint was just one of a series of moves “to resolve the crisis of legitimacy in the country”.

Bayan Muna Rep Teodoro Casiño Jr later endorsed the civil society groups’ complaint.

“It is a matter of duty for me to do so in order to hold the President accountable for her impeachable acts in relation to the scandalous NBN-ZTE deal,” he said.

The complainants believed that the addendum would revive the original impeachment complaint against Abalos that had been archived.

“The complaint was just set aside, but not dismissed. And since there’s a new supplemental motion, they have no choice but to revive it,” Roque told reporters. (By CHRISTIAN V ESGUERRA, TJ BURGONIO, CHRISTINE AVEND/ Philippine Daily Inquirer/ ANN)