REP. Brian Poe Llamanzares (PL, FPJ Panday Bayanihan) is following the lead his mother, former senator Grace Poe, backing calls in favor of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte “for the evidence to come out.”
“I will follow the example set before me by my mother in the Senate. She voted in favor of the trial, and I will vote to support that — not for anything, but to support democracy and transparency,” he told reporters.
Llamanzares also filed his pet measure, the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill. He said if it becomes a law, the FOI would help make public the pieces of evidence against Duterte, if the Articles of Impeachment will be dismissed.
The neophyte congressman’s mother was one of only five senator-judges who voted against the Senate impeachment court’s move to remand the Articles of Impeachment to the House of Representatives before it adjourned session last month.
The four other senator-judges were Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian, and then senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Nancy Binay.
The House has already complied with the impeachment court’s first order for the lower chamber, under the previous 19th Congress, to issue a certification that it did not violate the constitutional one-year ban on the filing of more than one impeachment complaint within the same year.
However, it has yet to comply with the other order — for the House to issue a certification that the 20th Congress, which opened on June 30, still intends to pursue the case.
“Well, I think it’s pretty clear that my vote will be for the evidence to come out. The whole purpose of the trial is to proceed with the democratic process. At the end of the day, it’s not about picking a side, it’s about opening up the government to the Filipino people so that they would see what’s happening behind all this,” said Llamanzares.
The rookie lawmaker said his mother is “in favor of any way that we can support more transparency and openness when it comes to the evidence that the prosecution prepared.”
“All preparations will go to waste if there’s no venue to show it. And I think it’s the people’s right to see that evidence,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.
