Opposition: Cha-cha to make impeaching GMA impossible

The opposition in the House of Representatives warned the nation yesterday that Cha-cha (Charter change) would make ousting President Arroyo through the impeachment process impossible.

"This is the reason why the administration is moving heaven and earth to push for Cha-cha and finish it by July. Why July? Because we will be ready with our new impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo by then," said Minority Leader Francis Escudero.

He said the administration wants to avoid a potentially bruising impeachment process by shifting the nation to the parliamentary form of government with a unicameral or one-chamber legislature dominated by its allies.

"They want to abolish the Senate, which, at the rate Mrs. Arroyo has been flouting the Constitution, will most likely convict her if an impeachment complaint reaches senators," he said.

Escudero said under the proposed amendments, the envisioned parliament would form an impeachment panel that would study complaints lodged against the president and other impeachable officials.

He pointed out that since administration allies would dominate the unicameral legislature, they would naturally control the study panel and the impeachment process.

The required vote of two-thirds of all members of parliament, including Cabinet members who would sit in the legislature, would be impossible to attain, he stressed.

Escudero explained that under the present presidential system, there is a greater chance of ousting the president through the impeachment process than in the parliamentary form of government.

One-third of the House is enough to impeach the president, while a two-thirds vote in the Senate is required for conviction, he said.

He noted that in 2000, the House impeached then President Estrada, but his Senate trial was aborted by the EDSA II people power revolt that swept then Vice President Arroyo to the presidency.

The opposition leader appealed to administration allies to look at the impeachment process as an accountability mechanism not for Mrs. Arroyo in particular but for all sitting presidents in general.

"We should not be myopic about this. If their goal is to insulate Mrs. Arroyo from impeachment by making the process so difficult that impeaching her would be impossible, then they would have shielded any scoundrel who would occupy the presidency," he said.

He warned Arroyo loyalists that such a scenario could invite intervention from the military.

Last year, efforts by Escudero and his opposition colleagues and party-list group to impeach the President fell through due to their failure to obtain the signatures of one-third of all House members, or at least 79, to send their impeachment complaint to the Senate for trial. The administration did all it could to frustrate the impeachment move.

This year, the minority group is planning to initiate another impeachment process. But judging from its recent signature-gathering campaign against the planned Charter change mode that would bypass the Senate, it still lacks the numbers to impeach Mrs. Arroyo. Only 51 members have signed up.