Impeach case vs President Aquino ‘returned to sender’

The first impeachment complaint against President Benigno Aquino III has been “returned to sender.”

The House of Representatives sent the complaint back to lawyer Oliver Lozano as it failed to meet the constitutional requisite of a verified complaint duly endorsed by a House member.

In a letter to Lozano dated Oct. 27, and released to the media on Thursday, House Secretary General Marilyn Babarua-Yap cited the complaint’s noncompliance with relevant provisions of the Constitution and the House rules of procedure in impeachment proceedings.

Yap said a careful examination of the Lozano complaint, which the House received on Oct. 25, failed to establish that it was endorsed by a House member.

Lozano sought Mr. Aquino’s impeachment for betrayal of public trust, citing as the basis the President’s refusal to allow burial with military honors for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos whose remains are temporarily buried in a refrigerated crypt in his Batac hometown.

Lozano, a Marcos loyalist, insisted that under the law, a war veteran like Marcos was entitled to burial with military honors. He claimed this was upheld in a House resolution approved by majority of the chamber’s members, the report on a survey conducted by Vice President Jejomar Binay; and the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ recommendation.