Members of the Ilocos Norte Integrated Bar of the Philippines have welcomed Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s move to face an impeachment court as a means to prove her culpability in the alleged wiretapped-conversations with Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Lawyer Ferdinand Ignacio, IBP-Ilocos Norte president, said the president must be afforded the opportunity to be heard through the impeachment proceeding before the public decides whether or not to ask her resignation. “Only if she has been found to have committed improprieties should the president be asked to step down,” Ignacio said. “But any act not sanctioned by the Constitution nor any violent means to remove the president does not deserve our support,” he added. The lawyers’ group also asked members of the opposition to abide by the Constitution, which it said provides the means in removing the President. The group issued the statement following Pres. Arroyo’s declaration of her willingness to submit herself to impeachment proceedings. Opposition groups and militant sectors have asked the President to quit her port following her admission that she was the voice behind the now-called “Hello Garci” tapes where the President was caught on tape having a conversation with the Comelec official regarding the results of the presidential elections. Pres. Arroyo eventually apologized during a nationwide televised address describing her conversations with Garcilliano as a lapse in judgment. The President insisted the conversations were only meant to protect her votes and not to rig the elections.
Cristina Arzadon
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