Impeachment certain as Estrada loses House: Villar, 45 solons bolt lamp

Now he’s left with only a few allies in the House of Representatives, where the impeachment complaint against him is pending.

Embattled President Estrada lost control yesterday of the chamber traditionally seen as supportive of Malacañang, with the resignation of Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. and 45 other congressmen from the ruling coalition.

Villar and his colleagues signed the impeachment petition in the presence of opposition congressmen led by Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City).

With the resignation of the Speaker and his group from Mr. Estrada’s ruling Lapian ng Masang Pilipino (LAMP) coalition, a new opposition-led majority coalition emerged in the House.

Villar said he and his colleagues decided to endorse the impeachment petition against their former LAMP boss to expedite the impeachment process.

"This political crisis has fostered divisiveness and polarization among our people. The crisis has already escalated to the point of threatening a paralysis in government and the collapse of the economy. We cannot allow this to happen because this will only add to the hardships of our people," he said.

Villar said with the fast-tracking of the impeachment process, the President, who now faces the inevitability of a Senate trial, will soon have the forum and the opportunity to answer the charges leveled against him by opposition congressmen and people’s organizations in the impeachment petition.

The opposition was clearly elated by the turn of events.

Belmonte, who led an initial batch of 42 congressmen who signed the complaint, told reporters he did not expect such a swift development.

"I had an inkling of what was to happen only two days ago when Speaker Villar gave congressmen loyal to him their freedom of conscience," he said.

"I knew that eventually, he and his group will go with us," Belmonte said.

He added that Villar has been "very disturbed about what is happening, the charges against the President, the fall of the peso, and the worsening economic crisis."

As for the impeachment process, Belmonte said the justice committee, which is handling the complaint, will meet to discuss how it can be expedited.

He said the new majority coalition has also gained control of the committee.

Belmonte predicted that within the week of the resumption of the session of Congress on Nov. 13, the complaint will be sent to the Senate for trial.

He said the trial will afford the President the opportunity to answer the charges against him.

"So far, what he and Palace officials have done was to issue general statements which did not clarify the issues," he said.

Referring to the so-called "Boracay" mansion in New Manila which is reportedly owned by the President but which Mr. Estrada has admittedly renting from former presidential housing adviser Jose Luis Yulo, Belmonte said it is hard to believe that Yulo is the owner of the property.

He said a local bank had brought Yulo to court for non-payment of credit card bill amounting to more than P100,000.

"How can a guy like that own a mansion which reportedly costs P150 million, excluding the lot which costs more than that?" he asked.

Clearly, Mr. Estrada and his alleged dummies, who are the registered owners of Boracay and several mansions, have a lot of explaining to do, he stressed.

Assistant Minority Leader Michael Defensor (LP, Quezon City) said it is on the issue of the mansions where the President will be forced to step down.

"He will avoid the spectacle of the other women he keeps being grilled on these properties and other wealth," he said.

The President had admitted that he and former actress Laarni Enriquez, by whom he has three children, had rented "Boracay" from Yulo.

Enriquez is also reportedly a frequent visitor of another mansion being built on a 5,000-square-meter lot in Wack Wack subdivision in Mandaluyong City.

Villar: My fate up to new coalition

Asked if he will keep the speakership, Villar said he is leaving his fate to the new majority coalition in the House.

Belmonte said the opposition is interested only in speeding up the impeachment process and not in disturbing the status quo.

Another assistant minority leader, Hernani Braganza of Pangasinan, said the minority will not move for a reorganization of the House.

"We are not power-hungry. We want to be magnanimous in victory," he said.

Besides, he said there is no point in disturbing the status quo since in two or three months, lawmakers will already hit the campaign trail for the May 2001 elections.

Villar admitted having talked to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a few days before he and his group decided to bolt lamp.

He had hoped to be on the administration’s senatorial slate in May but now have to run with the opposition. Some congressmen said he will be in Arroyo’s senatorial ticket.

Villar brought with him the entire House Leadership to the ranks of impeachment petitioners. Deputy Speakers Alfredo Abueg (for Luzon) and Erico Aumentado (for Visayas) and Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas were among the members of his group.

The Speaker said he has yet to talked to another deputy speaker, Daisy Fuentes of South Cotabato, a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

The other members of his group are Representatives Hussin Amin of Sulu, Ronald Cosalan of Benguet, Dante Liban of Quezon City, Eleandro Madrona of Romblon, Abdullah Mangotara of Lanao del Norte.;

Marcial Punzalan of Quezon, Rodolfo Tuazon of Western  Samar, Lawrence Wacnang of Kalinga, Leandro Verceles of Catanduanes, Edith Villanueva of Negros Occidental, Oscar Rodriguez of Pampanga, Asani Tamang of Sulu, Juan Pablo Bondoc of Pampanga, Emily Lopez of Guimaras, Romeo Candazo of Marikina; Roan Libarios of Agusan del Norte;

Francis Nepomuceno of Pampanga, Rodolfo Bacani of Manila, Benasing Macarambon of Lanao del Sur, Reginaldo Tilanduca of Bukidnon, Efren Herrera of Cebu, Generoso Tulagan of Pangasinan, Manuel Ortega of La Union, Nur Jaafar of Tawi-Tawi, Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City.;

Antonio Floirendo of Davao del Norte, Cirilo Badelles of Lanao del Norte, Wilhelmino Alvarado of Bulacan, Enrique Garcia of Bataan, Julita Villareal of Nueva Ecija, Pedro Pancho of Bulacan, Nimfa Garin of Iloilo, Vicente Valera of Abra, Vicente Sandoval of Palawan, Rogelio Sarmiento of Compostela Valley.;

Angelito Sarmiento of Bulacan, Pacifico Fajardo of Nueva Ecija, Edmund Reyes of Marinduque, Constantino Navarro of Surigao del Norte, Rafael Nantes of Quezon, Ernesto Nieva of Manila, Rosenda Ann Ocampo of Manila, Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur, and Benjamin Cruz (party-list).

Defensor said they now have at least 120 signatures on the impeachment complaint and they have more coming.

Rep. Rodriguez of Pampanga, a vice chairman of the justice committee, said the panel will go ahead with its scheduled meeting on Monday.

He said what could happen was that the committee would endorse the impeachment petition to the entire House, and the chamber, upon the resumption of session on Nov. 13 and by an overwhelming vote, would forward the complaint to the Senate.

The petition itself could become the articles of impeachment, he said.

He added that the House will then appoint a panel of 11 prosecutors.

In impeachment proceedings, the Senate acts as a court with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as presiding officer.

Meanwhile, Fuentes vowed to stick it out with LAMP, saying her commitment is to the electorate, not to Mr. Estrada.

Fuentes said the impeachment process should be allowed to take its due course. "Ultimately, being true representatives of the people, we should look into the case, review its validity and then decide. The due process must go on."

She said Villar has his personal reason to leave LAMP and that she respects the Speaker’s decision. But she chided some of her partymates for defecting.

"Some left the party because it is sinking. What we have here are clear personal interests that should not have a place in honest and clean politics," she noted.

"Nobody wants to be with a seemingly sure loser," she lamented.

Fuentes also called on her colleagues not to oust Villar to avoid further complications of the political crisis.

On the other hand, Libarios urged the President to step down "to avert a deeper national economic disorder, and save the country from a more debilitating political crisis.

Quoting Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Rafael Buenaventura, Libarios said the crisis besetting the financial market is a crisis in confidence that requires a political solution. "That political solution is for the President to resign." — With Eva de Leon, Allen Estabillo, Ding Cervantes