“If President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo thinks that she would continue to remain immune from suit by being a member of the House of Representatives in 2010, the president is dreaming,” human rights law group National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) said.

The term of President Arroyo shall end at noon on June 30, 2010, in accordance with Article VII, Section 4 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

The law group intends to file plunder charges and human rights abuses against the president and her cohorts before the Ombudsman as soon as the president’s immunity from suit is pierced come noon of June 30, 2010.

If the president has a dream of becoming a prime minister to bring back her immunity by pursuing charter change in Congress, she certainly would not succeed. The Filipino people have already perceive the president as ‘a megalomaniac, a woman obsessed with power and wealth’. If she could not successfully pursue charter change while still a president, due to strong opposition from different sectors, with more reason that she would fail in that ‘evil purpose’ as a congresswoman, and with a new president already elected.

Surely, the newly elected president would not agree to a revision of the constitution establishing a parliamentary form of government as such a move would clip the powers of the elected president. No newly elected president would agree to such an ‘evil purpose’.

Hence, even if President Arroyo wins a seat in the House of Representatives, she will be tried and punished for her crimes. The prescribed penalties for plunder and human rights abuses are certainly beyond the six-year imprisonment which is the limit from which a member of Congress is privileged from arrest under Article VI, Section 11 of the Constitution.

There is no way for President Arroyo to escape the wrath of the Filipino people for her crimes. President Arroyo and her cohorts will one day wake up and see themselves in prison cells. That is inevitable.#