Quezon: ‘Assassination’ of impeachment
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 11:58:00 11/19/2008
Filed Under: Impeachment, Politics, Congress
MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's allies in the House of Representative have started their "assassination" of the impeachment complaint, said a proponent of the motion for intervention to one of the impeachment complaints that have been filed and dismissed at the lower chamber.
"That's their strategy, they need to kill the smaller complaints first before killing the big one. Any other way, this is assassination," said Manuel Quezon III, Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist, INQUIRER.net blogger, and television host, after the committee on justice voted Wednesday against the motion.
The ‘intervention” filed by Quezon and company sought to include the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) into the complaint filed by the group of businessman Jose de Venecia III.
Two other complaints, filed by lawyers Oliver Lozano and Guillermo Sotto, were also dismissed because they fell under the constitutionally imposed one-year ban rule, which states that only one complaint can be filed in a year against the same official.
Quezon, who represents the group of bloggers who filed the intervention, said they would decide whether to question the ruling by the justice committee before the Supreme Court.
He said the decision showed that administration allies would block all moves that would fortify the impeachment case against the President.
Only four members of the justice committee -- Representatives Teodoro Casiño, Liza Maza, Satur Ocampo, Abigail Binay -- voted against the dismissal of the intervention, while 35 members were in favor.
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