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Anti-pork groups lodge impeachment raps vs. PNoy


(Updated 12:58 p.m.) Exactly a week before the State of the Nation Address, anti-pork barrel groups on Monday filed the first valid impeachment complaint against President Benigno Aquino III over the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
 
The militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) together with 27 other complainants said the grounds for the impeachment complaint were culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust—the same offenses that former Chief Justice Renato Corona was found guilty of.
 
The complainants filed the 80-page impeachment rap with the House of Representatives' Office of the Secretary General. It was endorsed by Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate, and Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap. 

Aside from Bayan, among the complainants were Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and Citizens Crime Watch. They were also petitioners against DAP over the Supreme Court.
 
Also among the individual complainants who signed the impeachment rap were retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz, Scrap Pork Network's Mae Paner also known as Juana Change, and Whistleblowers Association president Sandra Cam, among others.
 
 
‘Presidential pork barrel’

The complainants argued that Aquino used DAP as his own "presidential pork barrel."
 
"The basic thesis is that BS Aquino III... through the Disbursement Acceleration Program, intentionally and knowingly centralized and controlled public funds... And turned it into his own Presidential pork barrel," the impeachment complaint's  executive summary read.

Some parts of DAP were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

In its decision, the Supreme Court also said that the Executive's "savings" were not really savings but unobligated allotments that underwent "cross-border transfers" violating the 1987 Constitution because it gave the executive "unrestricted" spending power that "would threaten to undo the principle of separation of powers."
 
Even with the high tribunal's decision, PNoy stood by DAP, assailing the SC in a televised speech last week.
 
The complainants, however, argued that the President culpably violated the Constitution when he transferred the "savings" in programs that were not covered by the General Appropriations Act.

Impeachment Complaint Against President Aquino by Bayan Et. Al.


 

 
"President Aquino culpably violated the Constitution when he knowingly, willfully and intentionally usurped the powers of the Legislature and undermined the system of checks and balances," it read.

Likewise, the anti-pork barrel groups claimed that the President committed betrayal of public trust by "perpetuating and exacerbating the corruption-ridden and patronage-driven system of pork barrel when he created a new and bigger presidential pork barrel through DAP."
 
Impeach raps vs. PNoy unwarranted –Palace
The impeachment complaint filed against President Benigno Aquino III is "unwarranted" because he did not violate the law in implementing the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), Malacañang said Monday.

"We are asserting that the actions that were taken in connection with the DAP were done within the parameters of the law. That is our position," Communications Secretary Hermino Coloma Jr. said in an interview over ANC.

In a text message, Coloma described the impeachment raps as "premature," since the executive branch is still appealing the Supreme Court decision declaring certain acts under the DAP as unconstitutional.

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They claimed that Aquino perpetrated 116 counts of technical malversation, and corruption when he approved the release of funds to senator-judges "to unduly influence the impeachment complaint against former Chief Justice Renato Corona."
 
Last year, while the pork barrel scam was put on the spotlight, Senator Jinggoy Estrada revealed that senator-judges who voted to impeach Corona received additional funds ranging from P50 million to P100 million.
 
Budget Secretary Abad said these additional funds provided to senator were under DAP. However, he immediately clarified that this was not bribe to senator-judges sitting on the impeachment court, but allocations that were requested months before the impeachment procedure.
 
More complaints?
 
Meanwhile, Bayan secretary-general Renator Reyes told reporters that this may not be the last valid impeachment complaint that will be lodged against the President.
 
"Marahil hindi ito ang huling impeachment complaint ngayong linggo," he said.
 
"Kailangang mapanagot ang nang-abuso… Ang pangamba namin ay harangin at patayin ang impeachment complaint nang hindi man lamang nababasa ng mga congressman," he stressed.
 
Early this month, leaders of the majority coalition representing powerful blocs in Congress pledged to block any impeachment complaint filed against the President
 
"Ituwid and pag-agaw sa kapangyarihan ng Kongreso. Tumindig para sa mamamayan. Ang mamayan po ang kausap namin sa pagfifile ng impeachment complaint na ito," he added. 

Impeachment process

Under the 1987 Constitution, a sitting President may be impeached for the following offenses: culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. 
 
The House of Representatives initiates the impeachment process through a one-third vote among all its members. The Senate may oust a President through a two-thirds vote.

Allies of the President, however, currently occupy the House and the Senate's key posts.

According to the House of Representatives' Secretary General, the complaint will only be processed once the second regular session of the 16th Congress opens next Monday, the same day that the President was supposed to deliver his SONA.
 
After filing of the impeachment complaint, the Office of the Secretary General will forward the complaint to the office of House Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte. He will then submit it to the Congress' rules committees that will determine the appropriate committee for the impeachment complaint. 
 
Consequently, the committee will conduct hearings, which may lead to a vote of the impeachment complaint at the Plenary Hall.  — KG/RSJ, GMA News

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