September 6, 2005 · Posted in: Arroyo Impeachment, In the News
A death foretold
THE impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are dead.
In an unprecedented plenary session that lasted nearly 24 hours non-stop, the House of Representatives voted 158 to 51, with six abstentions, to approve Committee Report 1012, the report of the Committee on Justice dismissing all three impeachment complaints lodged before the chamber.
The House vote came at the conclusion of a grueling session that started at 4:00 in the afternoon of September 5, 2005, turning from long evening into endless night, and finally coming to a close after an exhausting day, when the Speaker banged the gavel at around 3:30 pm today.
Pro-Arroyo lawmakers outnumbered the impeachment proponents three to one, slamming the door on an impeachment trial. Proponents had hoped the trial would be the legal and peaceful way of uncovering the story behind the “Hello Garci” tapes and allegations it spawned — that Arroyo cheated to win the presidency in the 2004 elections.
With the defeat, pro-impeachment lawmakers say the House lost a golden opportunity to regain the credibility of the chamber, at the same time saying that the President was not off the hook. "We still believe that the President should be made to answer the charges levelled against her," said House Minority Leader Francis Escudero.
Although the vote was what the administration had been working feverishly to attain, even some of Arroyo’s allies warned her there was no reason to rejoice. “This is no moment to celebrate,” said Cavite Congressman Crispin Remulla, who voted in favor of Committee Report 1012.
Remulla said that he was sure another impeachment complaint against Arroyo would be filed in 293 days, the amount of time needed to meet the constitutional provision allowing only one impeachment proceeding per year.
“What we are granting the president is a reprieve,” Remulla said. He noted that the state of the nation — an economic crisis coupled with political unrest and disillusionment over the institutions of society — will make it ripe for another impeachment complaint less than a year from now, “if she doesn’t perform in accordance with what has to be done for the country.”
The vote comes three days before Congress adjourns for a break from September 10 to September 18, and just days before Arroyo leaves for New York to preside over the session of the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council meeting takes place from September 12 to 14.
Akbayan Representative Etta Rosales quoted from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez when she called the demise of the impeachment complaints as a "chronicle of a death foretold," something that the administration had ensured at the outset.
Throughout the night, opposition congressmen raised questions on the content and procedural issues, and drew attention to the haste with which the majority wanted Committee Report 1012 approved. Unlike usual congressional practice, noted Escudero, the House this time did not give members the time to go over the report, which was completed and distributed in the morning of September 5, and voted upon within less than a day.
12 Responses to A death foretold
enlightened_pinay
September 6th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Yes its dead, but Gloria will forever go down in history as the fake president who lead the cheating of the election & the impeachment.
bukolitos
September 7th, 2005 at 12:23 am
How many millions did she spend to kill the impeachment? The majority are sallivating because they are expecting another bonus next year when someone from the administration will submit a bogus impeachment. GMA is a hostage that will use the goverment’s resources to stay in power. The sad part about this is that the Pilipino people will have to bear the brunt of her lust for power.
We should wake up and fight against those who have disregarded our will. Do not VOTE for those who have killed the impeachment. They have killed the impeachment, let us kill the Cha Cha.
mukilteo
September 7th, 2005 at 8:32 am
beter yet, let us unite against Arroyo and her cronies, who lied, stole and bribed their way to power.
Pilipinos- UNITE AND SHOW THE PSEUDO-PRESIDENT THAT IN A DEMOCRACY, THE COUNTRY SHOULD BE RUN BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, OF THE PEOPLE , and not by the liars, the cheat and the corrupt.
Our only options now is for the people to RISE and get rid of them.
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » With impeachment dead, where to next?
September 7th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
[…] TUESDAY’S murder by numbers of the impeachment complaints filed against Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the House of Representatives has closed all the remaining legal and constitutional avenues for those seeking the president’s resignation, impeachment or ouster save for only two — judicial remedy from the Supreme Court and the people’s sovereign will acting as the final jury in the so-called "parliament of the streets." […]
pot-pot
September 7th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
well, we can get even with the congressmen who voted to kill the impeachment come election time……sila naman ang bibiguin natin.
we don’t need people like them running our legislature…puro sariling ambisyon lang ang inuuna….magkano kaya kinita nila noh?
according to them, they have consulted their constituents….hahaha….who are they kidding? lahat siguro sila constituent si gloria, mike defensor, bunye, at lahat ng mga sipsip sa malacanang….
let us just pray for their souls…may the lord have mercy on them!!!!
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » “Fat chance.”
September 9th, 2005 at 6:29 pm
[…] A day after the impeachment complaints against the president were killed at the Lower House, Press Sec. Ignacio Bunye quickly released a statement saying the biggest lesson to be learned at this time was that "we must amend our Constitution so that our nation need not suffer the scars of intense political combat." […]
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » Citizens’ congress to hear and examine evidence in aborted Arroyo impeachment case
October 26th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
[…] The Citizens’ Congress comes almost two months after the administration-dominated House junked all three impeachment complaints against Arroyo. Bukluran convenor Bro. Armin Luistro of the De La Salle community said the initiative is a response to Congress’s reneging on its duty to reveal the truth and hold the President accountable for her possible crimes and misdemeanors. […]
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » Survivor of the Year
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:04 pm
[…] Yet, she managed to hang on. The last year revealed Arroyo’s exceptional survival skills and a killer instinct that few have thus far given her credit for. She has managed to outmaneuver the opposition, which was bent on ousting her after the public revelation of wiretapped phone conversations where she was heard talking about election fraud. She gritted her teeth and let loose the police against mounting street protests. She likewise survived a bruising impeachment proceeding in the House of Representatives largely by deploying her allies in Congress and using patronage to buy the loyalty of legislators. […]
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » Three generations of military rebels
February 24th, 2006 at 10:48 am
[…] The volatile political environment — with the dissatisfaction with an unpopular president spilling out into the streets since July — has further encouraged the rebels. It was really only a matter of time before opposition politicians and civil-society groups, including those from the Left, began flirting with rebel soldiers. After all, these civilian groups feel that the avenues for holding the president accountable for her actions in 2004 (including the famous "Hello, Garci" phone calls) had been closed: the impeachment rap against Arroyo was killed in Congress last year and the judiciary appears reluctant rock the boat. […]
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » Arroyo deliberately cheated her way to the presidency, must vacate post to face charges — Citizens’ Congress
May 10th, 2006 at 11:29 am
[…] Concluding five months of fact-finding proceedings and public hearings involving 21 witnesses, and poring over and reviewing voluminous documents, the Citizens Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) — created last October after the impeachment bid was successfully thwarted by the pro-Arroyo Lower House — has released today its final 203-page report which finds Arroyo to have deliberately cheated her way to the presidency in 2004. […]
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » Anti-Arroyo groups brace for new impeachment bid
June 20th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
[…] A YEAR after the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was junked by the House of Representatives, various sectoral groups are now preparing to file what they call a “citizen-led” complaint. The complaint, they say, might stand a better chance of being sent to the Senate for trial. […]
INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » 2nd impeachment complaint vs. Arroyo filed today
June 26th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
[…] The former Marcos lawyer’s complaint proved to be a weak one, which the opposition tried to remedy by filing an amended impeachment complaint. But Arroyo’s allies in the House would eventually vote to bar the amended complaint — which only managed to get 59 signatures, short of the 79 (or one-third vote) required to immediately send it to the Senate for trial — and another one filed by lawyer Rizaldo Lopez, on a technicality, in consideration of a rule that only one impeachment case could be considered in a year. Afterwhich, in an unprecedented marathon session, the plenary, voting 158-51 (with 6 abstentions and 21 congressmen failing to vote), threw out the remaining Lozano complaint for insufficiency in substance. (Archive of posts on last year’s impeachment can be accessed here.) In the new impeachment complaint, Arroyo is again charged for corruption, the alleged massive cheating in the 2004 elections, and the unabated murders of activists since she assumed power in 2001. A new charge involves Arroyo’s attempts to crack down on anti-government protests and block investigations into alleged wrongdoing — acts that the Supreme Court later later declared unconstitutional. […]