i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

I M P E A C H M E N T
allow for a “creeping” impeachment.
Justice committee chair,
Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong
of Lakas also says
that the complaint stays with the
committee and can no longer be
transmitted to the Senate.
Opposition legislators and
the private lawyers working
with them of course beg to
disagree. They say the resolution
of impeachment is different
from the resolution of endorsement
by congressmen.
“Anytime during the process,
once they have the numbers,
congressmen can just file a
resolution saying that they are
endorsing the complaint so it
can immediately be transmitted
to the Senate,” says University
of the Philippines law professor
Ibarra Gutierrez III.
Actually, the minority and the
other impeachment-complaint
endorsers had wanted to avoid
a confrontation at the justice
committee where the odds are
definitely stacked against them.
But they found themselves with
no option other than filing the
amended complaint even with
less than the 79 signatures to
avoid, ironically, being slapped
with a technicality.
“For the amendment to be
included, it had to be filed before
the referral of the complaint
to the justice committee,”
says lawyer H. Harry Roque Jr.,
another UP law professor and
private counsel for the House
prosecution panel.
Congress insiders reveal that
there were at least a dozen congressmen
who committed to
sign the complaint but whose
signatures were missing when
it was filed. Some of these are
members of the majority who
could just be waiting for the
right moment to affix their signatures.
Others are said to be
wary of being lumped together
with the minority, and want
to distinguish themselves from
the bloc led by Sorsogon Rep.
Francis Escudero, the House
prosecution team’s designated
manager and the opposition’s
most credible face.
IPER’s Casiple notes that during
Estrada’s time, there were
also fencesitters who adopted
a wait-and-see posture. “Villar
did not sign until the count
reached 68 and needed only 10
more votes,” he recalls. “When
he finally signed, it served as
a go signal for his allies in the
House for them to also affix
their signatures.”
A HOUSE REHASH
So let’s say the complaint survives
what seems like an attempted
murder by numbers in
the House. To many, the first
few scenes of the main act at
the Senate may not look that
different from the prologue now
being played out in the House.
Even Gutierrez, who will work
as a private lawyer for the
prosecution, says, “I anticipate
that they will raise all sorts of
technical questions and insufficiencies.
Like in Erap’s trial, the
defense won’t immediately file
an answer. They will probably
file a motion to dismiss or motion
to quash like what (Estrada
lawyer) Estelito Mendoza did.”
He also says part of Arroyo’s
legal strategy could be to try to
suppress as much evidence as
possible without turning the
proceedings into a “second envelope”
situation. “They will be
more conscious of that now,”
says Gutierrez. “But they cannot
afford to let it get out of hand
to the extent that all sorts of
charges will come out in open
court. It would be very politically
damaging.”
Some observers are already
anticipating that debates would
break out over whether the
“Hello, Garci” tapes are admissible
as evidence or not. Should
they be suppressed, there could
be a replay of the “second envelope”
scenario, albeit with
many people knowing this time
around what the tapes contain.
But Gutierrez argues, “If they
object and invoke the right to
privacy, in effect they admit that
it was her. That would be very
damaging, maybe not in terms
of the trial, but in the public
perception.”
“The bar against using
wiretapped conversations
clearly applies in courts, in
nonconstitutional processes,”
he concedes. “(But) since the
impeachment trial is sui generis
(of its own kind), constitutionally
mandated, the implication
is the Senate can come up with
its own rules, including making
the wiretapped conversations
admissible for purposes of
this particular process, without
violating the nature of the impeachment
trial.”
Since impeachment proceedings
are also not criminal
in nature, and in fact constitute
a political process to determine,
in this case, whether or not Arroyo
is fit to remain in office,
the prohibition can be waived.
Cases decided in the United
States have admitted wiretapped
material when there is a
public interest involved.
BEYOND THE TAPES
Then again, Roque says their
legal strategy is not limited to
the tapes, anyway. “If at all, the
tapes are only third on our list,”
he says. “Our first and strongest
ground is that President Arroyo
talked to a Comelec commissioner.
The fact that she violated
her duties to execute all laws,
undermining the constitutional
independence of the Comelec
is itself a culpable violation of
the Constitution.”
As to the second ground
concerning election fraud,
which was detailed in the tapes,
Roque says they can prove it
through independent evidence
like tampered election returns
and witnesses (including Garcillano’s
nephew and self-confessed
bagman Michaelangelo
‘Louie’ Zuce). “All the events
in the tapes actually happened,”
he adds. “It’s as simple
as subpoena-ing the individuals
involved to reconstruct the
contents of the tapes. Besides,
there’s the admission that she
talked to a Comelec official.”
Such words may not comfort
those who already think
the opposition has been too
obsessed with presenting witnesses
and doing public exposés
instead of devoting their
time to hard, honest-to-goodness
research. Some veteran litigators
have also pointed to the
THEN AND NOW. (Above)
Senators opening evidence
during the Estrada impeachment
and below, opposition legislators
gear up for Arroyo’s trial.
relative court inexperience of
the prosecuting team. That includes
one-time bar topnotcher
Zamora, who has admitted that
if the impeachment trial pushes
through, it would be his chance
to finally take part in an actual
trial.
Yet in the end, the real
drama may unfold not at the
Senate, but elsewhere. As in
Estrada’s case, events around
the trial could determine the
outcome and resolution to this
long drawn-out, mind-numbing
political serye. As Casiple
sees it, the impeachment is only
meant to buy Arroyo some time
so her wards could turn around
the adverse public opinion
against her.
“Unless the opposition or the
people develop the capacity to
get her out, it’s just going to be
a political stalemate,” predicts
Casiple. But if there is an obvious
failure of the process, an extraconstitutional
backlash in the
form of another “people power”
revolt may become imminent.
When that happens, Casiple says
people will have a higher moral
reason to do so “because they
think she already cheated, and
now she’s cheating again.”
PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
I REPORT
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