By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: November 12, 2007
MANILA: Opponents of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo filed a new impeachment complaint against her Monday, alleging corruption and illegal policies that have resulted in the deaths, torture and disappearance of hundreds of government critics.
The complaint, the second against Arroyo this year, alleged several cases of abuse committed by state security forces. It also implicated her in a corruption scandal arising from a contract between the government and the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE.
Arroyo did not react directly to the new impeachment effort, although in a speech before health professionals Monday, she called on legislators “to stop political wrangling and concentrate on legislating.”
Arroyo’s political party dominates the House of Representatives, and most analysts believe impeachment efforts are unlikely to succeed. On Sunday, Representative Matias Defensor, an Arroyo ally who heads the House Justice Committee, told reporters that his committee would not accept any more complaints against Arroyo.
But Renato Reyes, secretary general of the leftist group Bayan, one of the signatories of the new complaint, said prospects for a successful impeachment had improved because of a rift between Arroyo and the speaker of the House, Jose de Venecia Jr., whose son publicly accused Arroyo of abetting bribery to facilitate the $330 million broadband contract with ZTE.
The success of the complaint, Reyes said, “depends on the pressure outside Congress,” referring to street protests, “and on the cracks in the administration coalition.”
Representative Teodoro Casiño, who endorsed the complaint, said that if Congress rejected impeachment, the drafters would “go to the Supreme Court and ultimately to the people, who will pass judgment on this.”
Arroyo has faced an impeachment complaint every year since she won a disputed victory in the 2004 presidential elections. On Monday, the House Justice Committee threw out a “supplemental complaint” that was intended to strengthen an earlier impeachment complaint filed by a lawyer.
The new complaint was signed by 21 groups and individuals, among them Arroyo’s former vice president, Teofisto Guingona.
The complaint alleged that a couple had committed suicide because of daily harassment and torture by soldiers who suspected them of being communist guerrillas.
Human rights groups and international agencies have accused the state security forces of implementing a counterinsurgency policy directed not only at insurgents but also at leftist groups that operate legally.
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