THE militant Makabayan bloc yesterday invited complainants and endorsers of all the three impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte to a meeting tomorrow to plan their next course of action, including pressing the House leadership to act on the complaints which remain pending in the Office of the House Secretary General.
Secretary General Reginald Velasco has yet to endorse to the Office of the Speaker the three complaints, all filed last month. He has said another group of complainants are expected to file the fourth impeachment complaint.
Last week, he said a group of administration congressmen have told him they were considering either endorsing one of the three impeachment complaints filed by various cause-oriented groups, or filing another complaint, which did not happen yesterday as had been expected.
Word going around is that the group of administration lawmakers calling themselves “Young Guns” are the ones who will file the fourth complaint.
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 (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) which she headed until June last year when she resigned as education secretary.
“As fellow advocates for good governance and public accountability — in particular, Vice President Sara Duterte’s accountability to the people — we hope that we can discuss in this meeting our impeachment complaints and agree on efforts to push the Marcos administration and the House of Representatives leadership to move the impeachment process along,” an invitation sent by the Makabayan bloc to the complainants and endorsers.
The invitation, signed by party-list Reps. France Castro (ACT), Brosas (Gabriela) and Manuel (Kabataan), said the meeting will be held at the minority bloc’s conference room of the House of Representatives at 10 a.m.
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.
CONSOLIDATION
The strength of an impeachment case does not necessarily depend on the number of complaints filed because all the complaints are expected to be consolidated before the plenary refers it to the committee on justice.
The Constitution provides that “no impeachment proceedings shall be initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year,” which means that he or she will be insulated from future complaints for a year once the complaint is dismissed or if the proceedings remain unfinished by the end of the regular session of the current Congress.
Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II earlier said 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 impeachment process because of lack of material time. He has also cited the Supreme Court’s ruling that an impeachment complaint is deemed initiated once the House plenary refers the complaint or consolidated complaints to the justice committee.
The Makabayan bloc has launched a campaign to gather the number of signatures required by the Constitution to automatically send the impeachment complaints to the Senate for trial.
Since there are 307 House members, they will need the signatures of at least 103 congressmen to shorten the impeachment process by constituting the Articles of Impeachment and sending it to the Senate which will convene as an impeachment court.
Without meeting the constitutional requirement, the complaints will have to be referred to the justice committee which will vote to determine if the complaint is sufficient in form and substance.
Once approved by the plenary, the Vice President is considered impeached and only then can the complaint be brought to the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, for trial.
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 members, 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 third, 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.
