HOUSE Secretary General Reginald Velasco yesterday vowed to transmit to the Office of the Speaker the three impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte this week as the House of Representatives is set to adjourn session for the start of the campaign period for the May midterm elections.
“It’s (the three complaints) still with me, but we have to act on it this week. We will act on it this week,” Velasco told reporters in a chance interview. “The deadline is this week.”
The House is set to adjourn session on Wednesday and the campaign period officially begins on February 11 for senatorial candidates and those running for party-list positions in Congress. For candidates running for local positions, including congressional candidates in various districts, the campaign period will start on March 28.
Velasco has been saying that he had to delay the referral of the three complaints, which were filed in December last year, to the Office of the Speaker to give more time to complainants of a fourth complaint that will be endorsed by a group of administration congressmen.
Last month, Velasco said he would wait only until January 23 for the fourth complaint which will be filed by a group of 12 congressmen from both the majority and the minority blocs.
“As of now, wala pa (nothing yet). So, you know, I think we have given them enough time. So we will have to transmit the impeachment complaints within this week,” Velasco said.
Velasco, however, said the fourth complaint can still be pursued by its endorsers if they take the shorter route of mustering the constitutional requirement of one-third signatories, which would automatically send the complaints to the Senate for trial.
Asked if the fourth complaint is dead, Velasco answered in the negative, saying “anytime, one-third of the members can endorse it, can sign a complaint in my presence, and then diretso ‘yon sa (it goes directly to the) Senate.”
“It will no longer go to the House committee on justice,” he said in Filipino.
Makabayan bloc lawmakers, in a statement last month, said Velasco’s hesitation to transmit and initiate the impeachment proceedings against Duterte “clearly stems from President Marcos Jr.’s previous statements admitting that he indeed told his allies not to file an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte as it was ‘not important and won’t make a difference in Filipinos’ lives.”
Marcos has not categorically asked his House allies, led by his cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez, not to file an impeachment complaint against Duterte but he has made it clear he is against impeaching Duterte. He has said the timing of the impeachment move is “very poor” because the complaints were filed while the government is in the thick or preparations for the 2025 midterm elections.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, in a statement yesterday, denied the Makabayan’s statement that the President is delaying the impeachment proceedings.
“The power to initiate and act on impeachment complaints is the sole prerogative of the House of Representatives. Out of respect for institutions, the President will not interfere in a matter over which a co-equal branch has exclusive jurisdiction,” he said.
The impeachment will take too long if the complainants fail to get the required number of endorsements as the Office of the House Secretary General still has to refer the three complaints to the Office of the Speaker, which has 10 session days to refer it to the Committee on Rules.
The committee will then will have to refer the complaints to the plenary which, in turn, will refer it to the House Committee on Justice which is tasked to determine if the consolidated complaint is sufficient in form and in substance.
All the three impeachment complaints against the Vice President are anchored on her alleged misuse of hundreds of millions of confidential funds in both the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), which she used to head as concurrent education secretary.
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 (PL, Akbayan). 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, which was filed just two days later by 72 individuals led by Bayan and endorsed by the Makabayan bloc, cited only one ground — betrayal of public trust, while the third complaint, filed on December 19 by religious groups and lawyers, 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. – With Jocelyn Montemayor