THE militant Makabayan bloc yesterday accused President Marcos Jr. of causing an “unprecedented delay” in the processing of impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, with his opposition to the initiative.
“This interference represents a dangerous obstruction of constitutional processes and democratic accountability. President Marcos Jr. has proven himself to be the biggest stumbling block to achieving accountability in corruption cases involving the Vice President’s confidential funds. We must ask: Does this have something to do with his own confidential funds and the system that benefits him and his allies?” the group said in a joint statement.
The Makabayan bloc, composed of party-list Reps. France Castro (ACT), Arlene Brosas (Gabriela) and Raoul Manuel (Kabataan), asked why House Secretary General Reginald Velasco has not referred to the Office of the Speaker until now the three impeachment complaints filed against Duterte last month.
“Never in the history of Congress have we witnessed impeachment complaints languishing in the Secretary General’s office for more than a month,” they said in the statement. “The House secretary general cannot continue to sit on these three complaints. The Constitution mandates that impeachment proceedings must be initiated upon proper filing of complaints.”
The lawmakers 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.”
The President has made it clear that he is against impeaching Duterte even if their political alliance has already crumbled. However, while he said that engaging in such a lengthy political exercise would only tie down Congress as it would not be able to focus on legislation and other more important national issues, the Chief Executive did not categorically ask his House allies led by his cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez not to file an impeachment complaint against Duterte.
Marcos has also 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 midterm elections this May.
The Makabayan bloc, whose members endorsed the complaint filed by the group led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), called on their colleagues in Congress “to assert their constitutional mandate and not allow the Executive to dictate the pace and outcome of these impeachment proceedings.”
“The Filipino people deserve nothing less than full transparency and accountability from their public officials,” they said.
LAST DAY
Velasco has said he had to delay the referral of the three impeachment complaints to the Office of the Speaker to give more time to complainants of a fourth complaint. He has also said he would wait for the fourth complaint to be filed only until today as he is already under pressure to refer the three previous complaints to the Speaker’s Office.
According to Velasco, a group of 12 congressmen from both the majority and the minority blocs who are behind the fourth complaint have also told him they are trying to meet the constitutional requirement of one-third signatories to shorten the impeachment process.
Without the required number of endorsements, it will take too long for the complaint to prosper since 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 rules panel will have to refer the complaints to the plenary which, in turn, will refer it to the justice committee which is tasked to determine if the consolidated complaint is sufficient in form and in substance.
Velasco and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante have both said that House members could be hesitant to sign the impeachment complaints because of lack of material time to tackle and vote on it since the 19th Congress is set to adjourn sine die in June.
Some lawmakers are also concerned that Duterte would only end up protected from any impeachment complaint for a year if the 19th Congress will not be able to finish the impeachment process before it adjourns sine die in June.
As the Constitution provides that only one impeachment complaint can be initiated against an impeachable official within a year, the complainants will have to wait for another year before they can file another complaint against the Vice President in case the 19th Congress fails to finish the proceedings.
The Supreme Court’s ruling is that an impeachment complaint is deemed initiated once the House plenary refers the complaint or consolidated complaints to the Committee on Justice.
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 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.