Usual early bird files impeach complaint

Lawyer Oliver Lozano filed yesterday an impeachment complaint against President Arroyo, Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos and all the Comelec commissioners for betrayal of public trust – for their failure to prevent political killings and fraud in the May 14 midterm elections.

But instead of filing it before the Secretary General of the House of Representatives, Lozano, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate, coursed his complaint through opposition congressmen who he said are duty-bound to endorse his complaint or face impeachment themselves for dereliction of duty.

“My complaint was already received by the offices of Congressmen Ronaldo Zamora, Roilo Golez, Darlene Antonino, Joel Villanueva and Teodoro Locsin. Under the law they have to act on it within 15 days,” Lozano told The STAR during a chance interview at the Quezon City Hall of Justice.

He said his is the first election-related impeachment complaint and he welcomes other charges to be incorporated in it.

Lozano said the opposition congressmen under the law must endorse his complaint because their job is just ministerial and the determination of substance lies with the House committee on justice, which will deliberate on the case.

“I am expecting again allegations that I preempted other parties to file their complaints, I must do it to ensure clean elections in the future,” he said.

Lozano said if Abalos and the sitting commissioners will not be impeached, then similar fraud will again take place in the 2010 election, which he said will no longer be tolerated by the people.

He said he will wait at least 15 days for the congressmen to endorse his complaint and if they ignore it, he will file charges against them at the Office of Ombudsman for failure to act on

an official complaint coursed through their offices.

 “The power and functions of a congressman include the endorsement of any impeachment complaint, if the complaint is valid they cannot just ignore it,” he said.

Lozano said he included the President in his complaint because as commander-in-chief she failed to prevent killings of political candidates that disrupted free elections this year. Such killings, he

said, are a matter of public knowledge or judicial notice that do not require proof.

In the case of Comelec officials, he said they failed to prevent profitable trending of survey firms, discrimination and other election irregularities like falsification of voters’ lists amounting to sdisenfranchisement.