Marcos loyalist Oliver Lozano is at it again, filing an impeachment complaint that is bound for the trash bin. This was the media’s implied assessment when it tracked down Lozano’s second impeachment complaint against President Benigno Aquino III in the Office of the Ombudsman and Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon.
This is Lozano’s seventh impeachment complaint filed against an impeachable official. The first was in 2000 when he rapped then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for calling for the resignation of then President Joseph Estrada. It was not to be the last of Lozano’s suits against a sitting President.
In 2005, Gloria Arroyo was just a year into her first elective term as President when the Marcos lawyer filed an impeachment complaint over GMA’s wiretapped conversations with former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. The case was dismissed for technical deficiency.
From 2006 to 2008, Lozano filed yearly impeachment complaints against Arroyo and all were dismissed for lack of merit.
The complaints were adjudged as nuisance and shielded PGMA from facing legitimate cases fueling suspicion that they were orchestrated by the administration. As we all know, the 1987 Constitution limits the number of impeachment complaints that can be filed against an impeachable official to one per year.
When the serial filer’s latest impeachment case reached the office of Congressman Ridon, the lawmaker seemed pleased by developments. After the Supreme Court ruled that parts of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) are unconstitutional, Ridon was the first to talk about moves to oust President Aquino. He is currently in the process of drafting his own complaint and he thought of including parts of Lozano’s presentation.
However, the lawmaker has had a change of heart over the weekend. During a media forum, Ridon announced he could not endorse Lozano’s complaint because “it failed to meet the requirements of the Constitution”.
Whatever it is, while Aquino allies downplayed talk of impeachment, events indicate the administration is not leaving anything to chance. The administration controls Congress and the prospect of Lozano finding a sponsor in the minority is likewise dim because the opposition including party-list groups are in coalition with the ruling Liberal Party.
However, when talk of impeaching President Aquino surfaced last week, the administration appeared to gear for war. Battle lines were drawn and important party allies were designated to guard the fort: Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento for the Bicol region; Laguna Rep. Joaquin Chipeco for Southern Tagalog; Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong for the Muslim bloc; Iloilo City Rep. Jerry Treñas for the Visayas; Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga for the National Unity Party or erstwhile members of Lakas-Christian-Muslim Democrats; Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez for the Mindanao bloc; Benguet Rep. Ronald Cosalan for the Cordillera Administrative Region; Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice and Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo for Metro Manila; Ilocos Sur Rep. Eric Singson for the Ilocano bloc and Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe for party-listers.
These moves indicate that while the Aquino presidency regards impeachment as a numbers game, it is careful not to be overconfident. I believe the President realizes that his credibility and popularity have been punctured by a number of political issues. People are beginning to doubt or no longer believe the drive towards the tuwid na daan (straight path). Perceptions of selective persecution and prosecution of pork scammers and the recent Supreme Court decision that struck down certain practices in the DAP have cast the administration in the same light as those accused of pocketing pork barrel funds. Moreover, the administration cannot boast of doing a good job of rescuing and rehabilitating typhoon victims in Yolanda-ravaged areas.
And now, even political allies are beginning to rethink their position.
Akbayan Party-list Congressman Walden Bello has refuted claims of Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe that a party-list bloc is working against the likelihood of President Aquino being impeached. Akbayan is pro-administration and some of its members occupy important government positions, like Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Etta Rosales. However, Akbayan is critical of the DAP and Bello has advocated to clip the fiscal powers of the Chief Executive.
“We are not unthinking members of the majority,” Bello said about reports that party-listers are united against moves to impeach the President.
“Akbayan does not subscribe to the idea of the impeachment process as a ‘numbers game’,” he added. “Those who relate to it this way do a disservice to democracy. Our party has always approached the process not from a partisan point of view but from the substance of the allegations in an impeachment initiative,” Bello stressed.
Rep. Ridon is set to file his group’s impeachment complaint in a matter of days and whether Akbayan will join the movement to oust Aquino would be well worth watching—especially for the administration because Bello’s position indicates rumblings within the ranks of progressive and left-leaning groups that support President Aquino.
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