Past catching up on them
| FRONTLINE |
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| Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
Impeachment is a congressional political tool that is feared by constitutional officers, until of course Gloria Arroyo came into the picture and, with the aid of her allies in Congress — which included Sen. Franklin Drilon and then Speaker Jose de Venecia, as well as the Supreme Court (SC) justices — made it an annual inoculation against the impeachment virus.
Then, the required number of congressmen to send the impeachment complaint against then SC Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. to the Senate was met, but this was thwarted by the Speaker, as well as then Senate President Drilon, then a Gloria ally, who made it clear that the Senate would not accept the impeachment complaint and instead brought the issue up to the high court to decide. This was also when a status quo ante order on Davide’s impeachment was issued.
Not surprisingly, the high court came up with a ruling on the so-called start of the initiation proceedings, which it said comes when the first impeachment complaint is filed, which made it easy for a constitutional officer to evade impeachment via a bogus complaint. At the same time, the House allies of Gloria rejected consolidating another impeachment complaint with the first complaint, which is now the issue on the case brought before the high court by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
It is to be noted that the House allies of Gloria then included now Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, who went along with the Gloria majority..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101006com2.html
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