A battle won

By BRYAN M. AZURA
September 19, 2006

The recent voting in the Lower House on the impeachment complaints lodged against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is an affirmation that a battle has been won fairly and squarely.

First, it was a personal victory. President Arroyo, though she had been showing confidence when faced to public, yet, she must have been struggling about the complaints against her whenever she enters privately in her room. The president will be very much hypocrite if she only thinks of the impeachment whenever she is being asked about it. Definitely, in her personal, private times, she had been thinking about it. Now that Congress turned the allegations down through a 150+ to 31 vote, surely she can now go to sleep with peace in her thoughts.

Secondly, it was victory over her detractors. Fact of the matter is, a year ago, when the same set of complains was lodged against her, over 50 Congressmen agreed that the complaints be passed on to the Senate. Despite the repeated claims of the opposition that they can get through with the 79 required votes for an impeachment transmittal to the Senate, yet, they ended up short of the necessary number. A year after, that over 50 lawmakers was even reduced to 31. What does that mean? More than 20 of them do not believe in the complaints anymore. With that, the President can conclude that more Congressmen believe in her legitimacy as the head of the land.

But most importantly, it was a battle won against stagnation. Governor Ben P. Evardone, prior to the resumption of Congress, have called upon the chamber to expedite the dispensation of the complaints filed in the Committee of Justice. He urged it due to the simple fact that the Philippine Economy is not moving. In other words, it is stagnating. Our leadership had been somehow preoccupied with the issue that in many instances, economic programs and policies are left unattended. The Congress itself could hardly bring about the 2006 budget. The president herself lost hope on it that she just requested the Congress to pass a supplemental budget for this year to finance the economic programs of the government. In this call, Governor Evardone, together with pro-economic government officials, succeeded in hoping for an immediate resolution on the impeachment complains.