THE House opposition bloc yesterday decided to drop the letter-request of a taxpayer to have President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III impeached based on alleged “massive tax fraud” over the sale of a government property in Baguio City to SM Investment Corporation during the time of the Ramos administration.

During yesterday’s regular House opposition’s bloc press conference, House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the letter dated Feb. 8, of Danilo Lihaylihay, president of the Philippine Association of Revenue Informers, Inc., to impeach President Aquino could not be considered impeachable offense.

“We in the minority have decided not to endorse the impeachment complaint against the President by a taxpayer. In the first place, we have not yet seen evidence of an impeachable offense in this complaint, although we are conducting our own investigation,” Suarez told reporters.

At the same time, Suarez explained that the minority group would not want to abuse of the impeachment process.

“But more importantly, we realize that we should be able to practice what we preach. If we truly believe that impeachment should no longer be trivialized for partisan purposes then we ought to set the example ourselves -- whether or not, as in this case, our colleagues in the majority choose to persist instead with their original reckless behavior,” said Suarez.  
Ryan Ponce Pacpaco