Opposition may withdraw impeachment if GMA explains poll fraud

Opposition lawmakers are willing to quit their renewed impeachment bid against President Arroyo if she makes a full public explanation on the electoral fraud allegations hounding her since last year.

House Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said they also want to dispel the notion that they only want to cause trouble for the administration.

"We can withdraw the complaint if she will answer these questions of cheating, lying and stealing. There are a thousand ways to explain. The point is we want to give her that chance," Cayetano said. "No one wants chaos."

He said they particularly want Mrs. Arroyo to settle questions surrounding the year-long controversy such as the identity of the election official with whom she had an inappropriate conversation during the 2004 vote count as well as the alleged involvement of military officers in the cheating.

They also want Mrs. Arroyo to answer allegations that she diverted government agriculture subsidy funds to her election campaign kitty. A key figure in the scandal, former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport on July 7 after his visa was cancelled.

The Senate has called for Bolante’s arrest after he snubbed a public hearing last year over allegations that he used some P2.8 billion pesos in fertilizer funds to reward politicians who helped Mrs. Arroyo win the hotly contested 2004 presidential election.

"Just give us the how. So far GMA (the President’s initials) is just trying to buy us. It has to be a solution that is acceptable to everybody," Cayetano said.

Mrs. Arroyo has steadfastly rejected accusations of wrongdoing.

The opposition’s offer followed an admission that they might not have enough backing from lawmakers in the administration-dominated House of Representatives to send an impeachment complaint to the Senate for trial.

The opposition needs 78 votes to have a complaint sent directly to the opposition-dominated Senate which could then hold an impeachment trial of Mrs. Arroyo.

A similar impeachment bid last year mustered only 51 votes, falling well short of the number required.

The opposition has been working to oust Mrs. Arroyo since June 2005 when they released audio tapes allegedly showing that she cheated to win the elections in May of the previous year.

Mrs. Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to finish her term in 2010.

Critics have warned that unless Mrs. Arroyo fully answers the allegations against her, a year-old political impasse will drag on and could force some groups to resort to a coup attempt or a people power revolt, with massive groups taking to the streets.

Such revolts have ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Mrs. Arroyo’s immediate predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in 2001.

No official has been removed through the impeachment process, though Estrada was toppled in a bloodless popular revolt in January 2001 after the House impeached him over allegations of massive corruption.

Although Mrs. Arroyo’s popularity ratings have fallen to record lows, a recent survey by respected research group Social Weather Stations found that a majority of Filipinos believe the opposition should put the issue aside and work to solve the country’s problems.

One group seeking President Arroyo’s impeachment over electoral fraud and other allegations has ruled out any illegal means to remove her from office.

"We will push for the impeachment of President Arroyo. That is the only legal way to remove her from office," singer Leah Navarro, spokeswoman of the Black and White Movement, told reporters in a press forum yesterday.

Navarro said they have launched a nationwide campaign in every congressional district to get the required minimum votes from congressmen to back the impeachment complaint they had filed.

Navarro said the only constitutional option left for their group is the impeachment process, which they said, still has a chance of succeeding.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said impeachment proponents should push on despite the likelihood of again failing in their bid to force Mrs. Arroyo from office.

"The truth has to come out no matter how hard it is to bring it out. No matter if the judge is already biased in favor of the other side. Let’s bring out the truth so that the people will know what is really the plan of the administration. Let the people judge even if the congressmen refuse to judge properly," he said.

‘Get act together’

Meanwhile, the local business community has called on all sectors to "get our act together and work as a nation" in the face of the renewed bid to impeach Mrs. Arroyo.

The Federation of Philippine Industries Inc. has also appealed to all concerned parties to "allow the law and its processes to take its natural course."

It also asked lawmakers from both sides to pay attention to the country’s problems, especially the fragile economy.

"We are combating poverty on all fronts and the business sector is not spared from these hard times," the FPI said in a statement signed by its president, Jesus Arranza. The group is an umbrella organization of 36 business groups.

Local businessmen face "higher cost of doing business — higher taxes, higher fuel cost, a fluctuating exchange rate, smuggling and corruption."

"We are not anywhere near our goal because we are still quarreling among ourselves," the federation said, adding that the political crisis hounding Mrs. Arroyo is slowly pushing the country toward "oblivion."

"We respect the views of all concerned including the exercise of their rights guaranteed within the frameworks of our Constitution," the FPI said.

"We have always made it clear at the outset that we support all actions and processes within the bounds of the Constitution. Once this action is started, let us allow the law and its processes to take its natural course."

Given the opposition’s own admission that it might not get enough votes to back an impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo, Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio earlier urged the opposition to quit and "give the country a break."

Allowing the impeachment drive to proceed despite the apparent lack of support would only "disrupt the economic momentum and improving stability of the country," Claudio said.

Legal experts like Amado Valdez, dean of the University of the East College of Law, believe that the second impeachment complaint has been weakened by the revelation by former ambassador Roy Señeres of a civilian-backed coup attempt by renegade soldiers, along with the television release of a video footage on the "withdrawal of support" by disgruntled military officers led by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

Lim and several other officers are facing the possibility of a court-martial.

These corroborated last February’s military intelligence reports on the involvement of the political opposition in a leftist-rightist conspiracy to topple the government, Valdez said.

This could mean that Mrs. Arroyo could not have committed a "culpable violation" of the Constitution in declaring a state of national emergency in February to protect the state from a serious threat as the opposition charges. — With Perseus Echeminada, Marvin Sy