FOUR of 10 Filipinos support the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte while three out of 10 are against it, a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from December 12 to 18 survey showed.
The results of the survey, which involved 2,160 respondents and had a margin of error of ±2 percent, was released yesterday by the Stratbase Advisory and Research Consultancy Group which commissioned it.
Duterte is facing three impeachment complaints so far. A fourth had been expected yesterday but no filing occurred, prompting House Secretary General Reginald Velasco to delay the referral of the three complaints to the Office of the Speaker to give more time to the filers of the fourth complaint. He said he expects the fourth to be filed either this week or next week, when the House of Representatives resumes session.
The fourth complaint will reportedly be filed by group of administration lawmakers calling themselves “Young Guns” but it remains unclear who the complainants will be.
The SWS survey showed that 41 percent of Filipinos support Duterte’s impeachment while 35 percent disagree, 19 percent are undecided, and 5 percent do not know. This resulted in a net agreement score of +6 (percent of agreement minus percent of disagreement).
Majority of Filipinos from Luzon, or 50 percent, agree with the impeachment bid, followed by those from the National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila), at 45 percent; the Visayas, 40 percent; and Mindanao, 22 percent.
Majority of Mindanaoans (56 percent) disagree with the impeachment, followed by those from NCR (37 percent), Visayas (33 percent), and Luzon 25 percent.
SWS said 50 percent of those from Class ABC agree with the impeachment, followed by Class D (41 percent) and Class E (37 percent).
Almost the same number of respondents from Class ABC (34 percent), Class D (35 percent) and Class e (36 percent) disagreed.
On the bases for impeaching Duterte, the survey showed 46 percent of the respondents said unexplained spending of confidential and intelligence funds by the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education; Duterte’s refusal to answer investigations into these funds also raises serious questions (36 percent); and ill-gotten wealth that could not be explained in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (25 percent).
Other possible bases for impeachment are Duterte’s threats to the lives of President Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez (24 percent), extrajudicial killing when she was mayor of Davao City 23 percent), failure to condemn China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea (13 percent), her criticism and claim that she wants to behead the President (12 percent), trip to Germany during the onslaught of typhoon “Carina” (11 percent), and use of fabricated documents and receipts to support accomplishment reports on the distribution of confidential and intelligence funds (11 percent).
DELAYED REFERRAL
House Secretary General Reginald Velasco yesterday said he had to delay the referral of the three impeachment complaints against Duterte to the Office of the Speaker to give more time to the complainants of a fourth complaint, which he expects to be filed either this week or next week, when the House of Representatives resumes session.
“There will be complications if I will refer, for instance, the three impeachment complaints because this is one of the rare times when there are more than one complaint so if I will transmit the three complaints filed so far, then it will only be the complaints studied by the Office of the Speaker for referral to the (House) Committee on rules, the plenary and from plenary, to the Committee on Justice,” he told ANC.
Velasco last week said a group of administration congressmen have told him they were considering either endorsing one of the three impeachment complaints filed last month by various cause-oriented groups, or filing another complaint, which did not happen yesterday as he expected.
“So the House members are interested that whatever complaints they will file or they will endorse will be referred to the Speaker at the same time, one package, instead of referring the first, second and the third and the fourth will not be transmitted to the Office of the Speaker,” Velasco said.
Velasco said there are moves being taken by the Makabayan bloc to convince all the other complainants to have all the three complaints consolidated before these are brought to Office of the Speaker.
If the Makabayan bloc will be able to consolidate the three complaints, he said, the fourth complaint will be treated as the second complaint.
The strength of an impeachment case does not necessarily depend on the number of complaints filed because all of it are expected to be consolidated before the plenary refers it to the committee on justice.
ELECTION ISSUE
The militant Makabayan bloc lawmakers held a closed-door meeting at the House with the complainants and fellow endorsers of all the three complaints and urged the House leadership to act on the complaints.
It was attended by members of the civil society, religious and youth groups who were behind the filing of the three complaints.
The group led by Reps. France Castro (ACT), Brosas (Gabriela) and Manuel (Kabataan) called on lawmakers to support the impeachment initiative, saying Duterte should be held accountable this year for her alleged misuse of confidential funds and other acts.
Castro, who, along with Brosas and Manuel endorsed the second complaint which was filed by the group led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), has been urging Velasco to act on the complaints by referring it to the Office of the Speaker once the House resumes session on January 13.
Former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño, a senatorial aspirant, said the groups agreed that they are open to campaigning for senatorial candidates who will vow to vote to convict the Vice President once she is tried by the Senate.
“Impeachment will be an election issue and we will have to shift the campaign to make the pro-impeachment senators win,” he said in mix Filipino and English in a press conference.
Casiño said the impeachment proceedings may reach the next Congress if the House acts on the impeachment before the 19th Congress adjourns “so the impeachment will be a key election issue.”
Velasco said some lawmakers may be hesitating to sign the complaint because “it could affect their reelection efforts especially if one congressman is running for a national post like a senatorial bet.”
“Maybe they are thinking about the votes they can get from Mindanao,” he said, noting that only 15 session days will remain before the 19th Congress adjourns sine die in June.
Velasco said House members could also be hesitant to sign now “because of this very short time frame.”
All the three impeachment complaints are anchored on the Vice President’s alleged misuse of hundreds of millions of confidential funds in both the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
The first impeachment complaint was filed on December 2 by civil society and religious organizations led by Akbayan party-list and endorsed by Rep. Percival Cendaña. It accuses the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.
The second complaint was filed just two days later by 72 individuals led by Bayan, which cited only one ground — betrayal of public trust while the third complaint was filed on December 19 by religious groups and lawyers who also accused Duterte of willfully misusing public funds by fabricating the recipients of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds disbursed by the OVP and the DepEd.
The latest complaint, which was endorsed by Reps. Gabriel Bordado Jr. of Camarines Sur and Lex Colada (PL, AAMBIS-OWA), who are both members of the House minority bloc, accused the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.
