Impeachment Part II

[grabehbebe]

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New impeach bid lacks evidence, lawmakers say


New moves to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are doomed to fail, proadministration lawmakers said over the weekend.

Rep. Gerry Salapuddin, House deputy speaker for Mindanao, and Antique Rep. Exequiel Javier yesterday said the opposition’s second complaint against the President was headed for the garbage bin because of lack of evidence.

The President’s allies laughed off what they called opposition lawmakers’ saber-rattling, saying the threats of a “bombshell” during the next impeachment proceedings was an obvious bluff to obscure the weakness of their complaint and the public’s diminishing support for such efforts.

Javier, vice chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, said the minority’s threats could not mask the people’s indifference and growing rancor to its obstructionist and negative brand of politics.

“The minority can brag about their aces but in the end, sila din ang mapu-pusoy along with their impeachment complaint,” Javier said.
He also debunked Senator Ping Lacson’s claim of launching another explosive exposé against the President.

“To him [Lacson], everything against the First Couple is a bombshell, even if it’s all hot air,” Javier said.

Javier said Lacson made a career out of bashing the First Family but had never presented concrete facts to substantiate all his previous charges.

He said the opposition should redouble their efforts to convince their own colleagues into supporting the impeachment complaint instead of fabricating new charges and evidence against the President.

“What is the guarantee that they can secure all 79 signatures this time when they were able to gather only 52 signatures last year? And there is no assurance that the 52 have remained intact till now,” Javier said.

Salapuddin said the opposition was free to try to impeach the President again because there was no rule prohibiting anyone who wanted to waste precious time and energy on a futile endeavor.

“It will be their loss and not the President’s. There is no indication that they have credible evidence against her or that they can secure 79 signatures this time around. They should talk less and work more to convince their colleagues to go all out,” Salapuddin said.

In a related development, lawmakers belonging to the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino challenged the minority leadership in the House to discipline opposition solons who may have violated proper decorum and abused parliamentary courtesy by airing to media baseless accusations against administration legislators.

In a joint press statement, Asst. Majority Leader Oscar Gozos, Rep. Nerissa Soon Ruiz (Cebu) and Rep. Renato Unico Jr. (Camarines Norte) advised opposition congressmen to raise the level of debates on the impending Arroyo impeachment case.

“They [opposition] should respect instead of debasing the diversity of opinion and viewpoints among members of Congress,” the Kampi lawmakers said in the statement.

Earlier, the spokesman of Kampi, Isabela Rep. Anthony Miranda, slammed Asst. Minority Leader Rolex Suplico (Iloilo) for accusing administration congressmen of expecting cash perks and other privileges from Malacañang in exchange for their votes in last year’s impeachment bid against Arroyo.

Gozos and Unico, both members of the House committee on good government, challenged Suplico to identify the congressmen who received pledges of special privileges for voting against the impeachment.

“Unless Suplico and others in the opposition are able to name names and present evidence to support their absurd accusations, the public should treat this as a smear campaign aimed at blackmailing lawmakers into supporting the new impeachment case,” Unico said.

Soon Ruiz said Suplico should file a complaint with the House committee on ethics and privileges instead of presenting his case to the media.

“We appeal for fairness from our colleagues in the minority,” Soon Ruiz said.

By Joel M. Sy Egco and Macon Ramos Araneta
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?...s05_may22_2006

[tolstoi]

unsa lagi himunon nila ug evidence ang WIRE-TAPPED CONVERSATION ni Garci ug PGMA??

[baron]

The Congress is about to adjourn by June 9. Instead of focusing their attention to important bills pending before them, they are preparing themselves to file just another impeachment complaint. Unfortunately, our legislators still have important pending bills just like the national budget, alternative energy resources, etc.

I hope they will realize how much time and effort they are spending just for another impeachment blunder instead of translating all of these in passing important legislation.

[darkwing]

too late, its a go, they will file another impeachment complaint, Escudero and his company are already preparing for it, too bad for our other bills

[kamikaze426]

hahay.. usik2x napud ug kwarta, why won't they spend there energy in helping the country rather than destroying the flow of our economy. Gasalig mani sila naa cla wawarts mao na dili cla maka feel unsa kalisod ang panahon karon.

[darkwing]

yup they have lots of money to burn, dili nila ma feel....ang ka paet kay sa taxpayer's money pa gyud gamit

[RuSteD]

yup they have lots of money to burn, dili nila ma feel....ang ka paet kay sa taxpayer's money pa gyud gamit

and to bring erap back to malacañang...bow

[patsadahon]

10 reasons to doubt the 2004 election results

1. Unusual jump in number of registered voters: The country’s population increases by roughly 2.3 percent each year. This means about five percent between 2002 and 2004. Yet, the Commission on Elections listed 43.5 million registered voters in the 2004 elections, or a 15-percent jump over the 2002 figure. The Comelec has justified the unusual trend, saying there appeared to be a “heightened awareness/enthusiasm of voters to exercise suffrage

2. Number of registered voters exceeds Comelec projections: In the provinces of Pampanga, Cebu, Iloilo, and Bohol, which delivered the largest chunks of the president’s winning margin over Poe, the number of registered voters in the end far exceeded the number of voters that Comelec expected to register.

3. Votes cast for all presidential candidates exceed actual voters.

3. Votes cast for all presidential candidates exceed actual voters.

4. Number of actual voters exceeds number of registered voters

5. Too popular outside bailiwick: For every Kapampangan who voted for Poe, 7.5 voted for Arroyo. For every Cebuano who voted for Poe, 7.8 voted for Arroyo. Historically, says Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Conrado de Quiros, “(not) one of the past presidents has shown himself to be as popular, if not more so, in a province other than his own.” He cited as examples the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos who was strongest in the Ilocos and Arroyo’s own father, the late Diosdado Macapagal, who showed himself strongest in Pampanga.

6. Zero vote for highly popular candidate: A 1966 Supreme Court ruling says a zero vote is statistically improbable. But the highly popular Poe failed to garner a single vote in a lot of places, including Sto. Tomas town in his home province of Pangasinan and in several Maguindanao municipalities where rival Arroyo’s total votes equaled the number of actual voters (another statistical improbability). Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. has argued that while a zero vote may be highly improbable, it is still possible, and cited several factors like “Church influence, patriarchal dominance, guns, and gold” that could make it so. Asked about zero votes in last year’s elections, Garcillano told newsmen, “If there is a zero, that is possible because they could buy the watcher of the opposite side.”


7. Votes for presidential candidate exceed votes for No. 1 senatorial candidate: Voters almost always write down names for senatorial and local posts on their ballots, but not necessarily make a selection for president. Also, voters can choose only one presidential candidate but can pick a dozen senatorial candidates at most. This makes it extremely rare for a presidential candidate to obtain more votes than the leading senatorial candidate. In Bohol, however, Arroyo garnered more votes than the leading senatorial candidate, including former Bohol representative Ernesto Herrera and Manuel Roxas III (who eventually topped the senatorial race), in 30 of 48 municipalities (60 percent). Ditto for Pampanga, bailiwick of both the president and Sen. Lito Lapid. Even in his hometown, Lapid had fewer votes than Arroyo. Similar patterns were detected in Iloilo, Siquijor, and Leyte provinces.


8. Presidential candidate more popular than local candidate: In the South district of Cebu City, Arroyo turned out to be more popular than the local candidate, Rep. Antonio Cuenco.

9. Unusually high winning ratio: Popularity-wise, Arroyo did not hold a candle to Poe. But in areas where she posted her biggest winning margins like Cebu, Arroyo led Poe by as much as 22 to one. By comparison, Poe’s lead over Arroyo was at most five times in places where he got his biggest winning margins. Election officials recall that Joseph Estrada, the runaway winner in the 1998 elections, led his closest opponent, Jose de Venecia, by five to one. Arroyo’s running mate, the extremely popular Noli de Castro, led Loren Legarda by only two to eight times in areas like Pampanga, Cebu, Iloilo, Bohol, Bukidnon, and Southern Leyte

10. Padding and shaving: New-media pioneer Roberto Verzola believes Arroyo did not win by 1.1 million votes. Using the Namfrel tally (based on elections returns) and the official count of Congress (based on Certificates of Canvass), he calculated Arroyo could have won by 156,000 votes at most, or Poe by 84,000 votes. He said the Namfrel tally is “probably closer to the truth” because it is harder to tamper with 216,000-plus election returns than with 180 COCs. Congress said Arroyo posted a 3.5-percent margin over Poe, while the Namfrel tally placed this at 2.6 percent. The biggest discrepancies between the Namfrel and congressional counts were in Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Norte, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao

[athlon XP-M]

WHAT'S YOUR PROOF?

[patsadahon]

Those are the proofs.