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MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) An impeachment complaint will be filed against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for three consecutive days, starting Saturday, a private lawyer said Friday.

Harry Roque of the University of the Philippines Law Center said the impeachment complaint would be filed at the House of Representatives at 7 p.m., Saturday, exactly a year after the filing of a similar case; 12 midnight, Sunday, to mark the end of the one-year ban under the Constitution; and at 9 a.m., Monday, when he and other petitioners would personally go to the House to file the complaint.

Roque said the same complaint would be filed on separate days to ensure that no other complaint would slip past the group.

Roque said among the new complainants was Jose de Venecia III., son of former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.

Aside from Roque and De Venecia, other signatories to the complaint include past and present personalities from government, politics, business, entertainment, and civil society: Josefina Lichauco, Renato Constantino Jr., Rolex Suplico, Jose Luis Alcuaz, Leah Navarro, Virgilio Eustaquio, Rez Cortez, and Henry Khan.

Roque said some of the issues that have been raised against Arroyo in the complaint were on the national broadband network agreement by the government with China’s ZTE Corp., where the young De Venecia was a key witness; the Northrail project; the Joint Maritime Seismic Understanding forged among the Philippines, China, and Vietnam; and the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Deputy Minority Floor Leader and Bayan Muna partylist Representative Satur
Ocampo confirmed the filing of the impeachment complaint and said that militant partylist groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Anakpawis would endorse it.

But Ocampo, in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net, stressed that they would qualify that they were not supporting the inclusion of the MOA-AD in the complaint, saying it is a "political issue" and that they favor the move for self-determination of the Bangsamoro people.

Last year, lawyer Roel Pulido filed the complaint, which was endorsed by Representative Edgard San Luis of Laguna province, an ally of the President.

Several impeachment complaints have been filed in Congress against Arroyo since 2005, accusing her of electoral fraud, corruption and human rights violations.

In 2005 and again in 2006, lawyer Oliver Lozano was first in filing an impeachment case, which oppositionists said was a deliberately flawed complaint to nullify subsequent "legitimate complaints."

These complaints were rejected by the House.(inquirer.net)

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