House minority abandons impeach try vs. Pres. Aquino

The House opposition bloc on Wednesday said it will no longer support an attempt to impeach President Benigno Aquino III for alleged tax fraud involving a government property in Baguio City.   House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said opposition members decided that there was not enough evidence that the allegations made by Danilo Lihaylihay, president of the Philippine Association of Revenue Informers Inc., constitute an impeachable offense.   “We have not yet seen evidence of an impeachable offense in this complaint, although we are conducting our own investigation,” he said at a press briefing on Wednesday.   Lihaylihay earlier wrote Suarez to inform the congressman of “massive tax evasion fraud” allegedly committed by Aquino and two other Cabinet officials for the government’s alleged failure to remit taxes from the sale of a 3.4-hectare government property in Baguio City to SM Investments.   Suarez added that the minority’s decision to abandon the impeachment attempt against Aquino shows the opposition’s commitment to preserve the integrity of the House’s sole power to impeach high-ranking officials.   “If we truly believe that impeachment should no longer be trivialized for partisan purposes then we ought to set the example ourselves – whether or not, as in this case, our colleagues in the majority choose to persist instead with their original reckless behavior,” he said.   The opposition’s decision a day after the House justice committee decided to approve for plenary voting the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo, who is being accused of betrayal of public trust for alleged plagiarism.   Just two months ago, the House impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona for betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and culpable violation of the Constitution. Corona is on trial at the Senate. — ELR, GMA News