Name: Salosagcol, Joseph M. Homework# 6.

1
Course: Philippine Constitution Class schedule: MWF/7:30am-10:30am
Title: Find out who have undergone the successful process of impeachment in the history of the
Philippines.

Why they were impeached

Fourth and Fifth Republic
 President Joseph Estrada was accused of bribery,
graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, and
culpable violation of the Constitution during the
impeachment of 2000, to determine the accusations,
the House of Representatives choose 11 members
to act as prosecutors with the Senate as the
impeachment court and the senators as judges. On
November 13, 2000, then-House Speaker Manny
Villar sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate
for trial. The impeachment trial started on December
7, 2000, which was presided by then-Chief Justice
Hilario Davide, Jr. but was aborted on January 16, 2001 after the House
private prosecutors walked out from the impeachment proceedings, to
protest against the perceived dictatorial tendency of the eleven senator-
judges, who supported President Estrada. The walkout led to Second
EDSA Revolution and the downfall of President Estrada.

Other government officials

COMELEC commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco was accused of graft and corruption, betrayal
of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution. She allegedly showed bias for the multi-
billion-peso voters’ registration and information system (VRIS) project, deciding to undertake it
despite the lack of funds.

 Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. was accused of culpable violation

of the Constitution, betrayal of the public trust and other high
crimes.

 On July 22, 2010, a new impeachment complaint

was filed against Gutierrez by then party-list
representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, former
Brigadier General Danilo Lim and Evelyn Pestano on the basis of "illegal,
unjust, improper or inefficient" handling of cases. In August 2010, another
impeachment complaint was filed by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
for inaction on the Fertilizer Fund scam, the Euro Generals scandal and
the Mega Pacific scandal. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on March
10, 2011 recommended the impeachment and resignation of
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez as well as the firing of members of the
Office of the Special Prosecutor for "neglecting, weakening and
complicating" the plunder case against former military comptroller Maj.
Gen. Carlos Garcia and his family. On March 22, 2011, the House of
Representatives voted to impeach Gutierrez on charges of betraying the
public trust, with 4 representatives abstaining, 46 against, and 210 for the
impeachment, thereby sending the impeachment to the Senate

 On December 12, 2011, 188 of the 285 members of

the House of Representatives signed an
impeachment complaint against Corona. As only a
vote of one-third of the entire membership of the
House, or 95 signatures, were necessary for the
impeachment of Corona under the 1987
Constitution, the complaint was sent to the Senate
for trial. Corona was accused of consistently ruling
with partiality to former President Arroyo in cases
involving her administration and of failing to disclose
his statement of assets as required by the
Constitution. However he argues that he was not required to disclose
US$2.4 million because foreign deposits are guaranteed secrecy under
the Philippine's Foreign Currency Deposits Act (Republic Act No. 6426)
and that the peso accounts are co-mingled funds. Corona said that the
case against him was politically motivated as part of President Benigno
Aquino III's persecution of political enemies.

 On April 28, 2015, President Benigno Aquino III

signed Bautista's appointment as the new
COMELEC chairman. This appointment played an
important role in the 2016 General Elections in the
Philippines, where many issues and accusations
circulated in the media and online social networks
about the alleged manipulation of the election
results by the dominant political party at the time,
Liberal Party (Philippines). The camp of losing vice-
presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
claimed that reports of irregularities in the hash code of the data provided
by the COMELEC's transparency server. To rebuff these claims,
COMELEC explains that this happened as the result of the correction of
the character 'Ñ' which did not render properly in the output. Another
accusation claimed by the Marcos camp was the reports of another
discrepancy in the data provided by the same transparency server, where
the number of votes have been slightly decreased further. Bautista
himself explained that this occurred as the result of their intentional act of
removing the "test votes" which were apparently included in the official
vote counts by accident, and reported by the transparency server. On
October 11, 2017, Bautista announced his intention to resign as chairman
of the Commission on Elections by the end of the year following claims by
his wife Patricia of unexplained wealth, which he has denied. Hours after
announcing his intent to resign, the House of Representatives voted 137–
75–2 to impeach Bautista from the post, overturning the House
Committee on Justice's earlier decision to discard the impeachment case.
The articles of impeachment have yet to reach the Senate, which will
serve as the impeachment court.
 Reflection
Impeachment in the Philippines is an expressed power of the Congress of the
Philippines to formally charge a serving government official with an impeachable offense. After
being impeached by the House of Representatives, the official is then tried in the Senate. The
purpose of impeachment is not personal punishment; rather, its function is primarily to maintain
constitutional government. In Section 2, Article XI of the Constitution says that the President,
Vice President, members of the Supreme Court, members of constitutional commissions, and
the Ombudsman may be removed from office via impeachment. Only one complaint can be filed
against an impeachable official per year, if an impeachment complaint does not prosper, a
second complaint cannot be filed within the same year. Any member of the House of
Representatives can initiate a verified impeachment complaint. Any Filipino citizen may also file
a complaint, which should be endorsed by a House member.
 Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_Philippines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Renato_Corona
https://asiafoundation.org/2012/05/16/fighting-corruption-in-the-philippines-models-for-long-
term-success/
https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82143&page=1
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-
philippines/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines-article-xi/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_Philippines