Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Small Victory

As Citizen Complainants to the 8th Impeachment against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Black & White Movement is committed to stand by the charges contained therein. The Complaint was filed and verified by B&W members from our provincial and urban sector chapters on 27 July 2006. It was endorsed by Liberal Party Representatives Dina Abad, Neric Acosta, Noynoy Aquino, and Manny Mamba.

“We enjoin all other Citizen Complainants to work with us toward the successful transmission of this Impeachment Complaint to the Senate”, said lead convenor Enteng Romano. He also said that all Filipinos should consider it their duty to monitor the proceedings of the House Committee on Justice to safeguard our right to hold our leaders accountable.

As to possible conflict of interest regarding the Fertilizer Scam, a charge contained in this present Impeachment, co-convenor Leah Navarro appeals to the Representatives’ sense of decency and fair play. “It is only right and just that a Congressman or Congresswoman, whether part of the majority or minority, not vote in the Justice Committee if it is found that they may have accepted Fertilizer Funds. This will remove any suspicions about their bias regarding the Impeachment. We would also like to know that upon receiving these funds, if any of them went on to campaign for Mrs. Arroyo in the last election.”

They also pointed out that Congressman Mikey Arroyo, son of the President, should have recused himself from the proceedings for obvious reasons.

Today’s theatrics notwithstanding, the Black & White Movement commends the members of the House Minority for reinforcing our belief in the rule of law and for their staunch support of our search for the Truth.

5 comments:

engineerOFW said...

I agree that the proper thing is for Mikey Arroyo to abstain from voting on accept/reject the impeachment complaints.

I am confused, though. The first 7 impeachments complaints discarded because they were filed less than one year before the Lozano complaint. Is this "GMA machinery being ruthless and narrowminded", or is this "the opposition getting careless (lazy? busy? arrogant?) and not paying attention attention to constitutional and legal rules"?

Leah Navarro said...

It wasn't a matter of not paying attention, or being careless, lazy, busy or arrogant on the part of the opposition, engineerofw. The serial filing was done to ensure that we had dotted all our I's and crossed our T's in relation to fulfilling the need to file on the right date. The "right date" was in question, and it would only be resolved at the first hearing, and that's what happened. We weren't sure which interpretation of "one year" would be used by the pro Gloria Reps in the Justice Committee.

schumey said...

Whether its a big or a small victory, its a victory nonetheless. Ellen Tordesillas has posted forms you can fill out. You can copy this forms and send them to your congressmen. We need to show our representatives our true sentiments. Its high-time we make our voices be heard. We've covered first base, its going to be rough the succeeding days. Let's all hope we weather this storm and reach the senate.

Leah Navarro said...

Thank you, schumey! Am looking forward to another interesting afternoon at the Justice Committee hearing.

That's great that Elln posted our letters to the Congressmen. Hope you would do us the same favor. We have to reach as many of our Representatives as possible.

schumey said...

Helga,

I've emailed all my friends copies of the letters. I hope we get the effects we expect.