CLARK FREEPORT – Rep. Oscar S. Rodriguez (3rd District, Pampanga) is not keen on sponsoring a proposed resolution seeking to transfer Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2nd District, Pampanga) from hospital arrest into the custody of the House of Representatives. The resolution is now being circulated in the province.
However, Rodriguez said he loves CGMA and that he was a party to her assumption to the presidency.
“Para sa akin hindi madali yan. Pero siyempre mahal ko si GMA kumare ko, party siguro ako ng kanyang pagiging president (For me that is not an easy thing to do. But of course I love GMA, she’s my kumare.
I may be a party to her assumption to the presidency),” the comebacking congressman said after the induction of the new set of officers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines- Pampanga at the Widus Hotel and Resort here on July 19.
Rodriguez was House Justice Committee Chair during the impeachment of then President Joseph Estrada who was eventually ousted leading to then vice president Arroyo assuming the presidency in 2001.
“Titignan ko ang resolution (I will look at the resolution) then I will decide on that particular issue after a thorough and serious study,” Rodriguez said.
“Medyu ticklish yan e. Hindi naman simpleng tanong yan. Hindi simpleng isyu (That’s a little ticklish. That’s not a simple question and not a simple issue),” he said. “We are traversing now within the realm of the justice system,” he added.
Rodriguez explained that sponsoring the resolution is like intruding into a separate branch of government referring to the legislative and judicial branches of government.
Anyway, he said, he has no position on the issue yet and any decision he makes will have to be consulted with his group. Rodriguez is a stalwart of the Liberal Party in Pampanga.
The proposed resolution based its premised on the American revolutionary battle cry “taxation without representation is tyranny.”
It said the arrest and detention of CGMA has resulted in the “denial and deprivation of her constituents in Pampanga of their representation in the legislative body.”
It also said CGMA “should be granted the presumption of innocence as she has not been convicted of any crime imputed to her and it is the Constitutional duty of the Congress of the Philippines to ensure and guarantee the safety, welfare and well-being, not only of the people in general, but also, of its members, even those charged with crimes sans conviction, considering their official mandates as the elected representatives of the sovereign people of the Republic of the Philippines.”
