A new impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was filed Monday morning accusing her, among others, of betrayal of public trust

A new impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was filed Monday morning accusing her, among others, of betrayal of public trust.

Jose 'Joey' de Venecia III, Iloilo Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico, and public interest lawyer Harry Roque led the filing of the complaint at the House of Representatives secretary-general's office at 7:40 am.

It was endorsed by Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino, and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza.

In an interview with DZMM, De Venecia said the more than 100-page complaint will "stand on its own merit" and is backed by evidence.

De Venecia said the impeachment complaint is also part of citizens' battle against corruption and poverty.

He expressed hope that more citizens and civil society organizations will support the impeachment complaint.

De Venecia and the other complainants were at the House of Representatives as early as 6 am to make sure they would be the first to file the impeachment complaint.

Only one impeachment complaint against the president is allowed each year, and only the first valid complaint will be entertained by the House of Representatives under its rules.

The impeachment complaint accuses Mrs. Arroyo of betrayal of public trust after she approved the National Broadband Network (NBN) telecommunications deal with China's ZTE Corp., saying that the deal was overpriced by at least $130M.

Other grounds included in the complaint are:

* culpable violation of the Constitution for approving the Northrail rehabilitation project;
* numerous human rights violations;
* graft and corruption for her administration's involvement in various irregularities including the P728M fertilizer scam, P2B swine scam; and,
* alleged ballot-switching in the 2004 presidential election.

Impeachment complaints filed against President Arroyo in 2005, 2006 and 2007 all failed to get the needed one-third votes of the House of Representatives.
Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico, Joey de Venecia and Atty Harry Roque hold copies of signed impeachment complaint (Ocotber 13, 2008)

In an interview with radio dzMM, Prof. Harry Roque of the UP College of Law, said that even if previous impeachment complaints have not been successful, they felt it was their civic duty to still file a new one.

Roque said the new complaint is different from the ones filed in 2005, 2006 and 2007 since the cases on Northrail, swine scam, and fertilizer scam have all been documented by the Commission on Audit.

"All of these have COA reports...These reports are conclusive," he said.

The human rights complaint, Roque said, has also been backed by the investigation done by a UN special rapporteur who found that the government had been remiss in its duty to protect the rights of citizens in cases of extra-judicial killings and involuntary disappearances.

Roque said they have been assured by the House of Representatives that their complaint was the first valid one to be accepted by the lower house.

Thus, if the House of Representatives opts to reject the complaint, it will have to do so on the basis of merit and not on technicalities.

The impeachment complaint filed in 2005 by lawyer Oliver Lozano was defeated basically due to technical deficiency rather than on merit.

"The House will be forced to look into the merits of the complaint," Roque said.

He said an impeachment complaint filed by Lozano last August 2008 was returned to him by the House of Representatives since the one-year ban on the filing of a new impeachment complaint had not yet lapsed. It also lacked endorsement by a member of the lower house.

The one-year ban lapsed last October 11.

Meanwhile, De Venecia is concerned that the impeachment proceedings may not push through given the increasing number of Lower House members who support the move for charter change to extend Mrs. Arroyo’s presidential term.

The son of former House speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. failed to file the impeachment complaint on Saturday because House Secretary General Marilyn Yap was not in her office. -- with a report from WILLARD CHENG, ABS-CBN News