Eulogies at the impeachment funeral

THE extended funeral rites for the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo began this afternoon in the packed hall of the House of Representatives, with an all-star cast of mourners led by Cory Aquino and Susan Roces.

By far the most dramatic announcement was made in a privilege speech by Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella, who surprised the audience by announcing his resignation as vice-chair of the Justice Committee and his signing of the impeachment complaint. The announcement was followed by raucous applause from the gallery, prompting a brief suspension of the session.

Fuentebella made the announcement at 7:45 p.m., as the “Privilege Hour,” which is traditionally set aside on Mondays for privilege speeches delivered by House members, was going on its third hour. One after the other, opposition congressmen delivered eulogies for an impeachment complaint that will likely be declared dead tonight or tomorrow.

Even before the session started, administration congressmen already said that they intended to kill the impeachment, and to do that today, amid threats by the opposition of another “people power.” House Speaker Jose de Venecia anticipated “overwhelming support’ for the Justice Committee report junking the flawed Lozano complaint and declaring all other complaints ineligible.

Delayed for an hour for lack of a quorum (less than half the congressmen were present by 4 p.m., when the session was supposed to start), the atmosphere in the House was described by one representative as “tense, edgy and teeming with raw nerves.”  The majority is evidently hoping for a kill in the soonest possible time, if only to preempt the opposition march scheduled for tomorrow. But they are also careful not to make it look like they were rushing the execution, lest they fan the flames of public anger.

Meanwhile, the minority, unable to muster the 79 votes needed for the impeachment complaint to be endorsed to the Senate, is still capable of a few surprises.  So in the House today, everyone was watching their backs. The majority allowed extended privilege speeches, while the minority remained wary about the inevitable voting that they would almost certainly lose.

Apparently anticipating the opposition would show up in their numbers today, administration followers, decked in blue, filled up the session hall, outnumbering those in black and white (the preferred colors of the pro-impeachment bloc). Just outside, a handful of Jesus is Lord devotees were fervently praying over the proceedings. Farther out, on Commonwealth Ave., there were the usual demonstrators outnumbered today by a ring of policemen.

So far, the first two-and-a-half hours of the session have been filled with privilege speeches of varying lengths and degrees of  eloquence and coherence (as well as sometimes unwise use of wise quotations – today’s favorites were the Bible and George Santayana). 

Thus far, the shortest and most eloquent riposte was made by Pasig Rep. Robert Jaworski Jr., who said that his own quick count in his city showed the president losing by 70,000 in the 2004 elections, but the final tally showed her loss shaved to just 30,000. “It’s a reality that cheating in this country is happening,” he concluded. “My statement is a simple message: huwag na  po tayong magbulag-bulagan (let’s not pretend to be blind).”

Alagad party list Rep.  Marcoleta started the fireworks this afternoon with a fiery speech in Tagalog, blasting former Social Welfare Sec. Corazon “Dinky” Soliman whom, he said, had unfairly accused of him being a Malacañang lackey when he endorsed the flawed Lozano complaint.

Marcoleta said that Soliman had seemed taller in his eyes when she resigned from the Arroyo Cabinet, but her recent remarks, he added, made her seem as short as Mahal and Mura, the dwarf duo on noontime TV. Unable to restrain himself, Rep. Jerome Paras rose to Soliman’s defense, screaming that “personal attacks should not be allowed in the House.”

Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla followed with his charges of “cover up and conspiracy” in the disappearance of former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. “We have issued a warrant of arrest for him, the first in our history in the House,” he said. He asked that Congress continue to search for Garcillano and compel him to tell the truth about the wiretapped recordings. He also asked for the resignation of officials of the Air Transport Organization and Bureau of Immigration, whom he accused of conspiring to allow Garcillano to slip out of the country. He said Subic Air’s franchise should also be revoked, as it supposedly allowed one of its chartered flights to be used for Garcillano’s getaway.

When Cebu Rep. Clavel Martinez took the stand, she accused the President and her husband of pressuring her nephew-in-law, the son of former Masbate Rep. Moises Espinosa, to deny that he was a bagman for jueteng. Her spiel, however, was so convoluted, the full import of what she said was lost on all but the best informed about the Byzantine family and political histories in the House.

So far, Taguig-Pateros  Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano takes the award for the most hi-tech presentation, with its audio and video clips, and background music to boot.  Cayetano listed what he said were the President’s violations of the Penal and Election Codes, as indicated in her conversations with Garcillano.

He also showed a PowerPoint presentation purporting to show proof of election fraud, including the supposed manufacture of fake election returns. He said there was a grand conspiracy to steal the vote that included the padding of the voter’s list and the overprinting of election forms.

Cayetano’s allegations unleashed a flood of denials from various congressmen. This was followed by Bataan Rep. Antonino Roman, who remarked that “after 30 hours and 52 minutes of talk,” it took only two hours to junk the impeachment complaint. He said that the majority’s numbers all do the more require it to dispense of the complaint with “elegance and grace.” He ended by quoting two text messages sent to him by overseas Filipinos, who said “No cover up please, we OFWs needed the truth.”

The next 15 minutes of the privilege hour was given to Minority Floorleader Francis Escudero, who gave a vigorous and impassioned defense of the opposition, saying that they, especially the young members of the minority, had tried their best to get at the truth out, using democratic processes, but the president obviously had no intention to answer the charges against her. 

Her silence, he said, is deafening.

We may not get the 79, he said, but it is not our defeat, it is the country’s loss. But if we get the number, he added, it will the people’s triumph, a victory for truth.

As I write this, the privilege hour was extended another 15 minutes to allow Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo to talk about the recent killing of activists.