House rejects Lozano new impeachment case vs GMA

MANILA, Philippines – Marcos loyalist lawyer Oliver Lozano tried to file a new impeachment case against President Arroyo yesterday, but officials of the House of the Representatives refused to accept it.

Lawyer Marilyn Yap, the chamber’s new secretary general, said they could not accept it because it was not accompanied by a resolution of endorsement signed by at least one House member.

She said under the rules on impeachment, a complaint must be endorsed by at least one member.

In his complaint, copies of which he distributed to reporters, Lozano said Mrs. Arroyo betrayed the public interest by admitting in a radio interview over the weekend that the $329-million national broadband network (NBN) contract was flawed.

Betrayal of the public trust is one of the impeachable offenses enumerated in the Constitution.

In the interview, the President said she was informed of irregularities in the NBN contract on the eve of her departure for Boao, China, where the deal was signed last April 21 and awarded to Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

She was forced to cancel the transaction five months later due to the scandal it had generated.

As evidence, Lozano attached to his complaint clippings of news stories about Mrs. Arroyo’s statements and the subsequent comments of opposition senators about her admission.

He claimed that Mrs. Arroyo’s admission requires no proof.

In the past, the Marcos loyalist lawyer filed impeachment complaints against several officials, including former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, but the House refused to accept them because they lacked an endorsement.

Former speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. once said Lozano should not make the House his archives of useless scraps of paper.

Lozano was the same lawyer who, in 2005, jumped the gun on opposition congressmen by filing an impeachment case against Mrs. Arroyo.

The President’s allies eventually threw out the case for lack of merit.

The opposition claimed that Malacañang used Lozano to give the President a one-year impeachment protection, an accusation the lawyer denied.

Last year, Mrs. Arroyo’s critics effectively prevented him from beating them to the draw by filing one complaint every day until the filing deadline. 

The House dismissed eight of the critics’ complaints, deciding to consider only one before throwing it as well for lack of merit.