Party mates to rally support for P-Noy

MANILA, Philippines - Party mates of President Aquino in the ruling Liberal Party (LP) will rally support today in the House of Representatives for his administration’s decision to prevent former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from leaving the country.

LP stalwarts led by Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II will circulate a resolution for signature not only by party members but also by congressmen belonging to the pro-administration majority coalition.

As of last Friday, Tañada said they already had more than 50 signatures on the resolution.

There are 85 LP members in the House, including Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who has said he would leave the signature gathering to his party mates.

Other party members of the majority coalition include the National Unity Party, composed of congressmen formerly belonging to Lakas; the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the Nacionalista Party, and various party-list groups.

The expression of support for Aquino comes amid speculations that congressmen who are loyal to the beleaguered former president and now representative of Pampanga’s second district would file an impeachment complaint against him even only for the purpose of harassing him or for making a political statement.

But the head of the opposition in the House, Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, promptly quashed such speculations, though he admitted that there was strong clamor among Arroyo’s supporters for her allies to initiate an impeachment proceeding against Aquino.

“We are a responsible opposition,” Lagman said. “Filing an impeachment case requires serious study.”

He said they would have to reckon with the “numerical superiority” of administration supporters in the House before deciding to start an impeachment process.

In any event, Belmonte and Gonzales have said any move to impeach Aquino would not prosper.

In their resolution, Aquino’s allies also expressed support for the actions of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in preventing Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel from leaving the country.

They said the Aquino government showed “extraordinary political will” in keeping the Arroyos here.

“The decision to bar the Arroyo couple is in line with the President’s covenant with the Filipino people to be the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption,” they said.

“President Aquino has a social contract with the people to transform the false sense of justice from one which money and connections can buy to a truly impartial system of institutions that deliver equal justice to rich or poor,” they added.

Aside from Tañada and Gonzales, and Reps. Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite, Irvin Alcala of Quezon, Henedina Abad of Batanes, Mel Sarmiento of Samar, and Walden Bello and Kaka Bag-ao of the party-list group Akbayan were the initial authors and co-authors of the resolution.

The President’s supporters questioned the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court, which effectively allowed Arroyo to travel abroad.

“It will hinder the turning of the wheels of justice and trivialize the efforts of the current government in the fight against corruption, as well as render the case (on the right to travel of Arroyo) pending before the SC moot and useless,” they said.

“The nature of TROs is to require the temporary enjoining of an act and the preservation of the status quo prior to the resolution of a case, not to render it moot,” they said.

They called on their colleagues to collectively express their support for the administration, pointing out that its actions “are intended to serve the ends of justice.”

“Flight is an indication of guilt and the act of fleeing under the cover of ostensible judicial order is an abuse of the legal process and a malevolent twisting of the law and the legal process,” they said.

“The Filipino people have the right to know the truth regarding the grave allegations that former President Macapagal-Arroyo faces. They have the right to hold public officials who have wronged the country accountable,” they added.