Impeachment complaint vs GMA junked

The House Committee on Justice today junked the fourth impeachment complaint filed by businessman Jose "Joey" de Venecia III against President Arroyo.

Voting 42-8, the committee ruled that the complaint was "insufficient in substance."

“I move that this committee resolve to dismiss the Jose de Venecia III impeachment complaint for being insufficient in substance," Rep. Edcel Lagman said.

Lagman also moved that the statement made by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino be removed from the record. “I would like to remove from the record the statement of the honorable Casino that we are here like bulag (blind), pip (mute) and bingi (deaf). That’s an insult to the members of this committee. Those are unparliamentarily remarks,” he explained

Before the House voted to junk the impeachment complaint, both pro- and anti -impeachment groups presented summaries of their stands on the issue.

In favor of an impeachment proceedings, House Minority leader Ronaldo Zamora said it would give Mrs. Arroyo the chance to answer all  allegation hurled against her. On the other hand, Lagman, who spoke in behalf of the anti-impeachment group, said the complaint merely contained "recycled facts".

In an interview over ANC after the House votation, former House Speaker and Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia said that what transpired this morning at the House of Representatives is "a temporary defeat for truth and justice."

"Our legal scholars will tackle the possibility of a legal challenge at the Supreme Court," he said.

The elder De Venecia had endorsed the impeachment complaint filed by his son Jose III in San Francisco, California on Nov. 4.  The original endorsers of the complaint were Casino, Satur Ocampo, also of Bayan Muna, and Liza Maza of Gabriela.

The most recent impeachment raps against the President was the fourth filed against her since 2005.  Under De Venecia’s leadership, the House dismissed the impeachment complaints against Mrs. Arroyo in 2005, 2006 and 2007 for lack of merit. This was during the time when he was still allied with Mrs. Arroyo. He fell from her good graces after his son's revelations on the irregularities in the ZTE-National Broadband Network deal and was eventually ousted as House Speaker.

Philippine law allows only one impeachment bid each year against the president. The younger De Venecia's complaint was filed last Oct. 13, or a full year after the last impeachment complaint was junked.

The most recent complaint consolidated previous and new allegations of corruption and other violations against Mrs. Arroyo as well as charges of misconduct in the controversial ZTE-NBN deal.