Manila Rep. Joel Chua PHOTO FROM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MANILA, Philippines — There are no impeachment talks against Vice President Sara Duterte among House of Representatives leaders, according to Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua.
Chua reiterated this on Thursday following Anthony Taberna’s report stating that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sent a text message to House leaders urging them not to file impeachment complaints against Duterte.
“Hindi ko pa po alam yan,” Chua said in a press conference when asked to directly respond to the report. “Wala naman po akong nare-receive na communication from House Leadership.”
(Actually, I don’t know that. I am still waiting to receive communication from House leadership.)
Previously, Chua, head of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said the panel had come up with two possible grounds—graft and corruption and betrayal of public trust—for impeaching Vice President Sara Duterte.
Zambales Rep. Jay Khonghun also said the House administration is not discussing impeachment yet, but he noted that other lawmakers could not be prevented from supporting such moves.
“Well, wala tayong kasiguraduhan kung saan nga po nanggaling yung text messages na iyan pero kung ang pinag uusapan ay impeachment, lahat naman ng tao may karapatan na mag file ng impeachment at siguro nasa kanya-kanyang konsensiya na yan ng mga bawat miyembro ng Kamara kung susuporta sila sa impeachment na may magpa-file…” Khonghun said.
(Well, we are not sure as to the source of such text messages, but if we are talking about impeachment, everyone has a right to file impeachment, and maybe it’s up to the conscience of every member of the House of Representatives if they would support any impeachments that will be filed.)
“Pero kami kasi sa administration hindi pa namin pinag- uusapan patungkol sa impeachment dahil abalang-abalang kami lalung-lalo na dito sa aming mga gawain sa Kongreso,” he added.
(But for us in the administration, we haven’t discussed impeachment because we are so busy with our activities here in the House of Representatives.)
Duterte alluded that the current administration wanted to remove her from her elective post.
Once allies during the 2022 polls, Marcos and Duterte have been embroiled in a worsening clash over the past months marked by the latter’s resignation in the Cabinet as education secretary.
The feud has since escalated, with Duterte revealing that she supposedly instructed someone to kill Marcos, his wife Liza, and cousin Romualdez if she would be killed.
READ: Trillanes says impeachment vs VP Duterte ‘ripe’, necessary
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Tuesday summoned Duterte over such remarks.
The panel headed by Chua was supposed to have a hearing on Friday, but he said it was postponed so the vice president could answer the subpoena issued by the NBI which required her presence on the same day.