Author Topic: Another Impeachment Complaint Filed Against Philippine President  (Read 536 times)

Lorenzo

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MANILA, Nov. 12 — Opponents of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo filed a new impeachment complaint against her today, accusing her of corruption and illegal policies that they said have resulted in the death, torture and disappearance of hundreds of government critics.

The complaint, the second against Mrs. Arroyo this year, includes accusations of several cases of abuse committed by state security forces. It also implicated Mrs. Arroyo in a corruption scandal arising from a contract between the government and the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE.

Mrs. Arroyo did not react directly to the new impeachment effort, although in a speech before health professionals today, she called on legislators “to stop political wrangling and concentrate on legislating.”

Mrs. 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 the president.

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, José 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, Mr. Reyes said, “depends on the pressure outside Congress,” referring to street protests, “and on the cracks in the administration coalition.”

Representative Teodoro A. 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.”

Mrs. Arroyo has faced an impeachment complaint every year since she won a disputed victory in the 2004 presidential elections.

The House Justice Committee today 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 her former vice president, Teofisto Guingona.

The president “abets the plunder of our economy and national treasury through corruption, bribery and anomalous contracts,” the complaint read. “More than plunder, however, President Arroyo is also criminally responsible for the deaths of many Filipinos through a national security policy that allows state security forces to commit heinous human rights violations with impunity.”

The complaint said 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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