ShareThisAllies poised to dismiss raps; expert airs warning
MANILA — The Palace believes there is no basis for the impeachment complaints filed against President Benigno S. Aquino III, whose reform agenda still has the support of the people.
“We believe that there is no basis for that (impeachment),” said Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda in a press briefing.
The House of Representatives’ justice committee said on August 26 that the three impeachment complaints filed against the President are “sufficient in form,” which means that the complaints meet the requirements for submitting a verified complaint under impeachment rules.
Opponents of the administration are entitled to their own opinion and they can take the advantage of the process that is enshrined in the Constitution, Lacierda said.
“That is understandable. That is how the Constitution has provided a mechanism for that,” he said.
“But the majority of the Filipino people are with us in the ‘tuwid na daan.’ We believe that the President has not done any impeachable offense,” he added.
Lacierda further said that members of Congress will see no merit in the allegations against the President.
While the deliberations are important proceedings in Congress, he said the Palace is more concerned with the country’s problems than with the impeachment complaints.
“What we are more concerned with is really how to address all the concerns of the country that affect our countrymen,” he said.
This developed as President Aquino decided to keep Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes in his Cabinet despite an urgent appeal of an administration ally for their removal, having been the alleged cause of the impeachment complaints against the President.
Abad, the brains behind the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and Delos Reyes still enjoy the trust and confidence of President Aquino, Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said yesterday.
Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello had earlier called on the President to sack Abad and De los Reyes for supposedly derailing the administration’s reform program. Akbayan party-list group is a known supporter of the Aquino government.
Bello met the President last week to complain about Abad’s blunder on the DAP, some acts of which have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The lawmaker also sought the replacement of De Los Reyes for the inefficient implementation of the agrarian reform program.
The President, however, did not grant Bello’s request.
“The President continues to trust Secretary Abad and Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes of DAR,” Coloma said in a Palace press briefing yesterday.
But Bello said he remains hopeful the Chief Executive will reconsider his decision and save his government from losing support for his administration.
“I am still hopeful,” said Bello, who chided Abad and Delos Reyes for contributing in weakening the credibility of Aquino’s reform agenda.
The lawmaker from Akbayan, believed to be the partylist closest to President Aquino, said he is not giving himself or Aquino a deadline for the firing of Abad and Delos Reyes.
Coloma recalled that the President had earlier rejected the resignation offer of Abad at the height of the DAP controversy several weeks ago.
In another development, Malacanang chided the people speculating on whether President Aquino will embark on Charter change to seek a second term, even as constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas warned “that may be his undoing” if he pushes it.
Lacierda said the people speculating on Aquino’s next move were “speaking ahead of any action taken by the President.”
“The President has, again, not made any moves. He’s just in the consultation stage so let’s just wait for the decision of the President,” he said.
“We have not moved an inch away from consultation. So don’t worry about all these people saying the sky is falling. It’s not. We’re still consulting.”
Lacierda said Aquino was just being honest about his views on the Constitution and had not gone beyond that.
So whoever likes to keep this issue alive, there’s a bad Filipino word for that: SS,” Lacierda said.
“It’s not us who’s doing that. We’re focused on the problems of the country. And so those people who are doing that thing, you’re just so caught up with 2016. I mean, come on, give it a rest. We’re still two years away from 2016.”
Bernas, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, had said the reason behind the prohibition on the reelection of a President was to get rid of the 1973 Constitution’s dictatorial provisions.
“[It was] to prevent a person from perpetuating himself in power. That’s basically it,” Bernas said.
Meanwhile, a college law dean said that the three impeachment cases filed against President Aquino have not achieved anything in the real political world even if the House committee on rules had declared them “sufficient in form.”
San Beda College Graduate School of Law Dean Fr. Ranhillo Aquino said allies of the Chief Executive are expected to declare the complaints as “not sufficient in substance” when the House resumes its deliberations.
He noted that the filing the impeachment complaint was doomed from the very start.
“As I said it would go nowhere, there are grounds to proceed if only Congress were more fair, but it’s not. We know from the very start that those efforts are doomed,” he said.
“I’m sure it will lose in sufficiency in substance. By doing that the committee was entertaining the complaints and so the requirements of the Constitution were fulfilled,” Bernas added.
The President is immune from being charged for another year,” he said.
The next impeachment hearing in connection to sufficiency in substance is scheduled on Sept, 2.