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.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS