AN IMPEACHMENT case was filed in the House of Representatives against President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. The complainant is a lawyer. His complaint was immediately endorsed by a member of the House.
Unfortunately, the impeachment complaint is now facing a serious question of credibility. The reason? An opposition congressman claimed to know that the complainant-lawyer is very well identified with First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos.
With such disclosure by Congressman Edgar Erice a number of the President’s critics are saying that the filing is likely a scheme to obviate a better-prepared impeachment case against the Malacañang tenant.
And such a scheme is one big lesson learned from the impeachment filed against Vice President Sara.
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As of yesterday morning, new House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil disclosed that the impeachment case against President BBM has already been transmitted by her office to House Speaker Cong. Faustino “Bojie” Dy for appropriate action. That is, including the case in the calendar of agenda by the plenary.
Of course, the impeachment complaint will be formally referred to the House Justice Committee for the needed verification. Once fully verified as to its compliance in substance and form, the same impeachment rap will be deliberated by the plenary, and once it gets the required number of votes the same will be transmitted to the Senate for trial if no further bar occurs.
However, considering the huge number of congressmen who are known to be aligned with the incumbent President, our take is that it may be a bit difficult for the House to get the number of votes required to have the impeachment case transmitted to the Senate.
Now then, if it is true that the complainant-lawyer is a lackey of the First Lady, all the more reason to think that the impeachment rap is nothing more than noise.
Zarzuela days are here again.
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The lead Counsel of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte who is facing crime against humanity in the International Criminal Court (ICC) is criticizing the court’s call for more witnesses against the former President to come out. Lawyer Nicholas Kaufman claims that “the move is a threat to the court’s neutrality.”
Personally we believe that Kaufman missed seeing the move of the ICC as one big opportunity to further strengthen the defense of the former Philippine leader.
Did Kaufman not realize that when the ICC openly called for more witnesses to come out, it is a clear admission that the court is apprehensive that the witnesses it may have with now and the testimonies they may have given the ICC are not sufficient to arrive at a conviction?
Yes, with the ICC scramming to get more witnesses the court is in a way wanting in certainty that it could bring the Duterte mystique down the drain. And with such possibility its credibility stands to be the one likely dumped in the canal instead.
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Despite the passage of the law allowing the expansion of the franchise area of power distributor Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC), NORDECO or Northern Davao Electric Cooperative, the franchise distributor in Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro, is asking Congress to renew its franchise.
The Two lawmakers who are sponsoring the bill for the franchise extension are all representing the interest of power cooperatives.
We are certain that this move by NORDECO supporters in the House of Representatives is one very interesting test case of Congress’ flexibility to a given situation. It is virtually an open challenge to a law that grants another distributor to expand its franchise.
One thing clear to us though, is that NORDECO and the congressmen sponsors of the bill seeking for its franchise extension, know that they still; have an opportunity for the success of their intention.
They know fully well that the law granting Davao Light’s franchise expansion is still facing question in the Supreme Court. The power cooperative may still be expecting that the decision of the highest court may be in its favor.
Meanwhile, power consumers in all of Davao Light’s franchise area will be in for a surprise when they receive their power bill for January this year. And they certainly will not like it.
What with a P2.0052 per kilowatt hour hike in power rate? Of course, as per announcement of the power firm, it has a reason for the rate increase.
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