Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s dominant allies in the Philippine Congress on Wednesday dismissed the fourth impeachment complaint filed against her in as many years for alleged corruption and other crimes.
Opposition leaders vowed to try to impeach her again in next year — a year before her term ends — and some warned of other options, including a nonviolent “people power” revolt,” to remove her from office.
“Our day will come,” Representative Ronaldo Zamora said after resting the opposition’s case, which accused Arroyo of corruption, abuse of power and violations of the Constitution and human rights.
As in three other failed impeachment bids, Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives’ Justice Committee used their superior numbers to dismiss the 103-page complaint on a technicality by a vote of 42-8.
Pro-Arroyo Representative Edcel Lagman said the opposition had only resurrected old allegations.
“The hearse of exhumed carcasses must be led back to the graveyard,” Lagman told the committee.
Opposition Representative Teodoro Casino warned that blocking democratic avenues to remove Arroyo may impel Filipinos to resort to another “people power” uprising, as they did to oust former Philippine presidents Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.
“They’re courting danger by not allowing this democratic search for truth,” Casino said.
Arroyo succeeded Estrada in 2001, then won her own six-year term in 2004 in a vote that the opposition claimed she and her aides rigged.
A highlight of days of heated nationally televised impeachment debate was the appearance of Arroyo’s former political backer, ex-house speaker Jose de Venecia, who accused her on Monday of bribing him and other lawmakers to ensure the defeat of an impeachment complaint last year.
Arroyo is the longest-serving head of state since Marcos, but surveys have consistently ranked her the most unpopular.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS