4th impeachment complaint filed vs PNoy as allies seek term extension

QUEZON CITY — A fourth impeachment complaint against President Benigno S. Aquino III has been filed before the House of Representatives by a member of Congress himself.
The fourth complaint was filed by ACT Teacher party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio and signed by 16 other complainants, accused the President fo alleged betrayal of public trust and cuplpable violation of the Constitution citing the Chief Executive for allegedly continuing with the pork barrel despite having been ruled as unconstitutional and illegal by the Supreme Court.”
Even as the impeachment complaints were filed to oust Mr. Aquino, the President’s allies in Congress moved to extend his term to another six years even as his acceptance and trust ratings plummeted to new lows.

Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan City and other allies of President Aquino filed a bill seeking to amend the Constitution to allow the sitting President to run for reelection, a move heavily criticized by both opposition and administration lawmakers.
Erice said it is imperative to give President Aquino the right to seek a fresh term to sustain the positive effects of the administration’s reform agenda.
“This is the only way that the Filipino people can be assured that the economic gains we are experiencing will continue,” said Erice.
“May pagkakataon ngayon para matuloy ang reforms, kita naman natin ang ating GDP (gross domestic product) tumataas. Iyung credit rating, nag-i-improve ang ratings natin. So, marami ang interesado sa ating ekonomiya, maraming investor and we are the highest and fastestgrowing economy in Southeast Asia. Bihira lang dumarating ito, mayroon tayong Pangulo na matino, may Pangulo tayo na walang ibang passion kung hindi paano ipagpapatuloy ang nasimulan ng kanyang mga magulang na ikinokonsidera nating mga bayani,” Erice explained.
House Majority Leader Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales II said the economic Charter change (Cha-cha) of Speaker Belmonte will be a “collateral damage” if political amendments are introduced.
This as the House Committee on Justice officially took hold and initial action on the three complaints filed to oust the President and set them for consideration and voting whether it will be sufficient in form and in substance. This after the House, in plenary session, accepted officially and consolidated the three complaints and referred them to the Committee on Justice for its action.
Malacanang immediately reacted to the four impeachment complaints, reiterating that there is no truth to the allegations contained in the impeachment complaints against President Benigno S. Aquino III.
“That (impeachment complaint) is not a priority for us. The allegations that the President committed wrongdoing is, certainly…we do not agree with,” said Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
If the complaints hurdle the sufficiency in form and substance which will be decided by the House panel in separate deliberation and voting, it will be endorsed to the House as a whole which shall vote on whether or not to file the complaint to the Senate for eventual trial.
Considering that the lower chamber of Congress is controlled by allies of President Aquino, observers are doubtful if the complaint will be able to hurdle the panel and reported out to the House as a whole to determine probable cause to file the same to the Senate as an Impeachment Tribunal.
This situation was shown when the House panel headed by Rep. Neil Tupas Jr. of Iloilo effectively shelved the fourth impeachment complaint filed by Rep. Tinio, saying it was overtaken by events.
Tinio and other lawmakers supporting the impeachment complaints against President Aquino, however, shrugged off the action by the Tupas committee, pointing out that it was enough that the complaints were filed and discussed in Congress and made public for the people to know the truth.
Tinio said he and other lawmakers and supporters will go directly to the people to explain the impeachment complaints together with the evidences they had presented with the complaints.
Tupas said that three impeachment complaints were consolidated by the House in a plenary session and referred them to the committee on justice which he heads.
After the consolidation of the impeachment complaints was referred to his committee, impeachment ban policy starts, thus effectively setting aside the fourth impeachment complaint filed by Rep. Tinio.
“Once the first impeachment complaint is transmitted, the second complaint would be barred from being heard for one year,” Tupas said after the plenary referred the complaint to the House committee on justice.
He said the one-year ban started after the transmittal of the complaint and it needs to wait for another year if the complainants want to refile the impeachment complaint.
According to Tupas, he had set the first hearing of the impeachment complaint for next week, saying he expects almost perfect attendance of all members of the committee during the hearing.
“Members need to scrutinize the complaint and it requires 28 votes for probable cause,” Tupas stressed.
Tinio backed up the fourth impeachment complaint with a compact disc which recorded an executive session of the House with Chairman Patricia Licuanan of the Commission on Higher Education and Health Undersecretary Janet Garin who said during the session that the pork barrel was “alive,” except that the lawmakers will have to get part of that from CHED and the Department of Health and other agencies.
Tinio said the CD is their evidence that Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) is indeed included in the proposed 2015 General Appropriations Bill.
The first impeachment complaint of 28 individuals from the anti-pork barrel groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) was filed three weeks ago in the House.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., meanwhile, reiterated that President Aquino’s allies in the House will not allow to accelerate the impeachment of the sitting President because he just did the right thing to help propel the country’s economy using the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), some provisions of which were declared by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
Earlier, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Rep. Antonio Tinio and Gabriela Rep. Emmi De Jesus endorsed the third impeachment complaint filed by 21 individuals from various progressive groups led by former Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, president of the Makabayan coalition.
They accused President Aquino of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for directing the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States last April 28.
The second impeachment complaint was lodged by 25 youth and student groups headed by Youth Act Now, also in connection with President Aquino’s use of DAP.

Tinio was immediately threatened with disciplinary action because under the Anti-Wire Tapping Law, the proceedings during Executive meeting should not be revealed by anyone present without the permission of the leadership.
The Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc. (PCFI) said they are already studying the possibility of filing a complaint against Tinio before the House Ethics committee.
Tinio shrugged off the threat, saying this has been considered when he decided to file the complaint against President Aquino. He said the executive session of the House was a public meeting in a public place which was also recorded by the House officials themselves.
Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe said that Tinio might have violated the Anti-Wire Tapping Law after he revealed in public what had transpired during an Executive session.
“Una sa lahat, yung Executive session dapat po confidential yun at dun lang po lamang dapat sa mga nag-attend ng executive session. Anong nangyari? Ti-nape ng isang staff o empleyado. Ngayon ang tanong, ito ba ay legal? Mayroon tayong Anti-Wire Tapping Act na kung saan bawal mag-tape ng isang private communication na walang pahintulot. So, may kuwestiyon na po sa legalidad nito,” said Batocabe, spokesman of PCFI.
“Executive session should not be revealed in public unless there is a go signal or clearance from the leadership,” he pointed out.
Tinio admitted in an interview that the CD contains the proceedings of an Executive session.
Batocabe said the fourth complaint against President Benigno Aquino III filed at the House of Representatives by Tinio et al. may not be consolidated to the three impeachment complaints filed earlier as this (4th impeachment complaint) is focused on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
“PDAF no longer exist. Our P70 million allocation before is now scattered to different line agencies of the government,” Batocabe explained saying that if they want to make a request they need to ask the particular agency concerned.
He pointed out that the fourth complaint was too much.
“Is there any wrongdoing during the Executive session that Patricia Licuanan, chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), is just explaining the guidelines on how lawmakers can avail scholarships of our constituents,” he asked.