DoJ mulls sedition raps vs Erap for Gloria illegitimate tag

February 26, 2008

For calling President Arroyo an illegitimate Malacañang resident in an al-Jazeera interview and for earlier calling on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to become the protectors of the Filipino people and for the soldiers to support the resignation calls for the chief executive to resign, Malacañang, through the Department of Justice (DoJ) yesterday threatened to file sedition charges against former President Joseph Estrada, along with the warning that his absolute pardon granted to him by Mrs. Arroyo last year would be revoked.

Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor warned Estrada that he will be facing sedition charges if he continues to issue derogatory statements directed at Mrs. Arroyo and if Estrada continues to question Mrs. Arroyo’s legitimacy.

“(It is) a seditious remark, calling for the Armed Forces to rise against government,” he added.

By questioning the legitimacy of the Arroyo government, Estrada, in effect, is “putting into question his own pardon,” Blancaflor said.

“We have to apply the legal dictum: the spring does not run higher than its source. That’s the problem with his statement,” the official said, adding his statement was the DoJ’s “legal opinion” on the matter.

But Estrada shrugged off the threats issued by Malacañang yesterday.

A source from the Estrada camp told the Tribune that Malacañang must be in a panic to zero in on Estrada’s interview and his call for Mrs. Arroyo to voluntarily resign, since resignation is a constitutional means of the removal of a sitting president.

Estrada said that if the people want her out of Malacañang, she should heed the call of the people as she can no longer govern.

The source also said that if Malacañang is serious in its threat to file sedition charges against Estrada, the Palace is certainly asking for trouble, since the masses, who are supporters of Estrada, may just stage a people power revolt against Mrs. Arroyo as a response, for again unjustly charging the deposed leader.

But Blancaflor said that if Estrada’s argument of Mrs. Arroyo being illegitimate is true, then the pardon given to him by the Palace last Sept. 25 is not valid .

He also claimed that the statement issued by Estrada urging the AFP to withdraw support from Mrs. Arroyo can be considered a seditious statement.

Estrada, however, did not make such statement, only stating that the AFP should listen to the call of the Filipino people for Mrs. Arroyo to resign, and to become the protector of the people.

He also said that the absolute pardon granted to him restored all his civil and political rights.

But Blancafor insisted that such “does not mean you can do anything to abuse the right, that you can say anything you want, that you can say anything seditious in nature and you can get away with it. It has to still be within the bounds of the law and the Constitution. It does not mean he can say anything he wants,” Blancaflor said.

In the al-Jazeera interview, Estrada stated that Mrs. Arroyo is an illegitimate president as she grabbed power from him in a coup d’etat last Jan. 20,2001 and that she had cheated to win the presidency in 2004, saying “she was never elected president.”

These statements appear to have panicked Malacañang into threatening Estrada with sedition charges, even as many others in the anti-Gloria Arroyo groups have stated the same and have not been threatened with sedition charges.

“An expression of political belief is not tantamount to violation of law. On other hand, for him to state that the President is illegitimate is different. If the administration is illegitimate, then his pardon is also illegitimate.. Revocation is another matter, but it is under the law . One cannot abuse the pardon given to him,” Blancaflor stressed, hinting that if Estrada refuses to heed the Malacanang’s warning and continue making derogatory statements against the Arroyo administration, then his pardon might be at risk of being revoked and he could be liable for sedition.

The undersecretary , however, stressed that his opinion is based on a DoJ opinion, saying his was just a warning but expressed the hope that Estrada would heed it.

Malacañang, sources said, has also been getting jittery over the continuing popularity and public acceptance of Estrada.

He is on a speaking engagement circuit, and has made many jokes at the Arroyo couples’ expense, most of which have the audience rolling in laughter.

The Palace through Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez also questioned Estrada’s recent willingness to be the country’s caretaker president should Mrs. Arroyo be ousted.

Golez said Estrada was already given the chance to govern the nation but that he blew the opportunity given him.

“We thank the former President for his concern about the country but our history books tell us that he had his chance to lead the country but failed to perform his duties as the President,” Golez said in a text statement.

But it is fact that the constitutional process of removing Estrada as president through a coup d’etat as admitted by Mrs. Arroyo herself when she revealed that she and her military generals, along with civil society, including the Catholic bishops, plotted Estrada’s ouster a full year before ousting him. Moreover, the process of impeachment was never respected by either then Vice President Gloria Arroyo, her military, or the Supreme Court of Hilario Davide Jr.

Golez emphasized that there is no need for Estrada to offer himself as caretaker because Mrs. Arroyo, according to him, performs her duties well as the country’s President.

The other day, Mrs. Arroyo maintained that she would only step down on 2010, her last term in office.

The camp of Estrada on Sunday said it is leaving to the “conscience” of the men in uniform the decision on whether they would become the protector of the people in their clamor for truth on the corruption-ridden NBN scandal.

At the same time former Speaker Jose De Venecia, now an Arroyo foe, yesterday called for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo, saying it is now too late for her to lead a moral revolution.

“I already called for her resignation. It’s useless for her to lead the moral revolution. She should step down or face the divisive and painful impeachment,” De Venecia said. His wife, Gina De Vencia joined him in his call.

Mrs. De Venecia said that it is now time for Mrs. Arroyo to leave Malacañang due to the huge controversies that plague her administration which includes the most recent US $329 million NBN deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

“After all these recent events baring the corruption that land on her her doorstep, then maybe it’s time to listen to the call of the people and I guess it is time for her to go,” Mrs. De Venecia said.

The former speaker blamed Malacañang for his ouster citing the testimony of his son and namsesake Joey De Venecia implicating the First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in the controversy.

Also yesterday, De Venecia agreed with Senate President Manuel Villar that there is now a basis for the filing of an impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo due to her admission that she had known of the NBN mess even before she had signed the contract in China.

“If it’s clearly an impeachable offense, then the Senate President is right,” De Venecia.

De Venecia also said that Mrs. Arroyo, who is the chairman of the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats, and not he as president of the party should be removed from the post.

“We should cleanse the party of the forces of evil,” De Venecia said.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, for his part, yesterday announced the start of transparency on the House of Representatives books of accounts will been given priority on the proposed reforms in the Lower House, it being one of the major issues raised against the ousted Speaker.

Nograles said the House Committee on Accounts will meet regularly every Wednesday to review and assess the expenditures in the Lower House as well as to track how every centavo of the House budget is being spent, adding the committee had already started House expenditure under the watch of de Venecia.

“The Accounts (committee) does not meet regularly in the past. Under our watch, we should endeavor to call as many meetings to explain to members how the budget of the House is farmed out. This is in line with transparency,” said Nograles.

Nograles said that the accounts committee held an “emergency meeting” Wednesday last week to begin a scrutiny of the books of accounts under the leadership of de Venecia.

However, an influential member within the reform bloc who requested anonymity, claims De Venecia had been lobbying before the new House leadership not to pursue its investigation on the book of accounts.

Nograles’ move to review on the finances and expenditures of the House was also in response to the demands of several congressmen wanting to know where the billions of House funds go. With Gerry Baldo and Charlie V. Manalo

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