The 2nd Impeachment

MANILA, Philippines—House justice committee chair and Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor Wednesday challenged the party-list congressmen to get the one-third votes of the House of Representatives needed to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and pave the way for her impeachment trial in the Senate.

Defensor had been sharply criticized by the militant solons for suspending the committee’s first hearing Tuesday on the Gutierrez impeachment due to the lack of quorum.

Defensor claimed that only 23 members were present, which was below the 28 needed to form a majority vote among the 55 members.

Defensor claimed an absolute majority was needed to determine whether the complaint filed by a group of civil society members led by former Senate President Jovito Salonga was sufficient in form and substance.

Irked by the raucous opposition to his decision, Defensor made the challenge to his critics in the Ayes and Nays press conference.

Defensor figured that the minority block would have a more difficult time to raise the one-third vote, which has increased from 79 to 88 after 28 new party-list representatives bloated the House membership to 266.