Impeachment a constitutional route—Gonzalez

By Maricar M. Calubiran, correspondent

Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Sr. said the filing of an impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a “constitutional route” that should be taken by the opposition rather than calling for a snap election or institution of a military junta.

Gonzalez's reaction was in relation to the impeachment complaint filed by Atty. Oliver Lozano at the House of Representatives. He said the call for military junta and snap election to oust President Arroyo is no longer attainable in the present system of government.

Lozano filed the impeachment complaint following President Arroyo's admission that she was indeed the one in the wiretapped conversation with a Comelec official. She did not mention on who she was taking to.

Gonzalez explained that there are three grounds in filing an impeachment complaint against the President. The President has committed treason, has committed willful violation of the Philippine Constitution and has committed other “high crimes.” It is the impeachment court which will decide on what offenses are considered high crimes.

The justice secretary said the President neither did not willfully committed treason nor violated the Constitution when she admitted she was indeed the one in the wiretapped conversation. “The opposition or whoever wants to file an impeachment complaint can always claim the President willfully violated the Constitution.”

He added the President admitted that what she has done was a lapse of judgment. “There is a difference between deliberate act to violate and an act that may violate but was not intentional. “When you speak of willful violation of the Constitution you can add anything there, that will stand as willful violation.”

The justice secretary also refused to be associated with Lozano. The opposition claims the Lozano's action was meant to block the filing of substantiated impeachment complaint within one year. Under the rules of impeachment proceedings, no other impeachment complaint may be filed against an impeachable officer within one year from the time a complaint is endorsed by a member of the House.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez viewed Susan Roces action lambasting the President as “reaction of a griping widow.” “I don't think she knows what she is talking about, sanay naman siyang magbasa ng script.” Roces is Fernando Poe's Jr. widow.

He added there is no basis on the claims of Roces that Mrs. Arroyo grabbed the presidency in 2001.Mrs. Arroyo took the power from ousted President Joseph Estrada. “The Supreme Court upheld the assumption of President Arroyo.”

Gonzalez added that perhaps Roces should remember that one of the personality that prompted the assumption of Mrs. Arroyo as president in 2001 was Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel. Pimentel has a great part in the impeachment proceedings against Estrada. “It was him who's holding the microphone on whether to open or not the envelope.”

He said Roces perhaps meant that even Pimentel was responsible for the illegal assumption of Mrs. Arroyo. Pimentel is now with the opposition group. What Roces is saying is completely opposite of what is the actual situation, said Gonzalez.

The justice secretary stressed that no fraud was proven in the 2004 elections.