Think twice, solons urged on impeach-Sara moves

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Barbers: Marcos anti-impeach stand a policy

CONGRESSMEN should think twice about pursuing moves to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte because even President Marcos Jr. has questioned the “poor timing” of the filing of the complaints, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said yesterday.

Barbers said lawmakers who are pushing for the impeachment of the Vice President should take their cue from the President and reconsider their positions because the 19th Congress does not have enough material time left to work on such a tedious process.

“Tingin ko it’s (the President’s statement) a policy na dapat pagnilayan ng bawat miyembro (I think it’s a policy that each House) member must ponder on,” he told reporters.

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Barbers said his colleagues should consider the President’s statements before signing and endorsing the three complaints filed last month.

“Those who want to endorse the complaints should look into it, study it, thoroughly think about it. To me, that statement of the President is a policy,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.

The President said last Saturday said he agrees with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile that the country could face a “very detrimental precedent” if government leaders would follow the calls and suggestions for the House to set aside the impeachment complaints aired during a “peace rally” led by the Iglesia Ni Cristo last week.

Marcos 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.

The President has also already made it clear that he is against impeaching Duterte even if their political alliance has crumbled. He has 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.

House Secretary General Reginald Velasco has said 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.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante backed this up, saying many House members believe there is not enough time to pursue the impeachment in the 19th Congress, especially since only nine sessions days are left before the 90-day campaign period for the midterm elections officially begins on February 7.

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.

‘NO TIME LEFT’

Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability which has been looking into Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds, agreed with the President that there is not enough time left to tackle the complaints.

“By February, the national campaign will kick in. Congress will go on a recess. Congressmen will be busy campaigning in their respective districts,” Chua said.

While Chua said he is not sure if the panel can still muster a quorum, he intends to continue the investigations on the issues hounding the Vice President, who was concurrent education secretary until she resigned from the Cabinet in June last year.

Abante, one of the co-chairmen of the quad comm, said the 19th Congress is “not ready” to tackle the impeachment complaints because “the reality is there’s no time left.”

Even if the complainants manage to get the constitutional requirement of 103 signatories which would constitute the Articles of Impeachment, he said there is no guarantee that the Senate will be able to discuss it.

“It’s already campaign season, the elections are near. And then it will be transmitted to the Senate. And we’re not even sure if the Senate will take it up,” he said, adding that the complaint should be left to the next Congress.

LONG PROCESS

Gathering 103 signatures, or one-third of the House membership, will shorten the regular impeachment process because it will automatically constitute the Articles of Impeachment against the Vice President and prompt the Senate to convene into an Impeachment Court to try the case.

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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 committee, chaired by majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, 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.

The militant Makabayan bloc at the House has been urging colleagues to sign and endorse their impeachment complaint against the Vice President but it has yet to gather steam until now.

A House source said administration lawmakers who have vowed to sign the complaint have yet to do so, as they seem to be waiting for a go-ahead from the President and his cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez.

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.

Velasco has said he can only wait for the fourth complaint to be filed until Thursday this week because he is already under pressure to refer the three previous complaints to the Speaker’s Office.

He said 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.

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.

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