Tiangco on impeachment raps: Hold everyone accountable

MANILA, Philippines — Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco believes everyone must be held accountable for the issues faced by the country, as impeachment complaints have been filed against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and raps are also looming over Vice President Sara Duterte.

Tiangco, on Thursday, at the Pandesal Forum of the Kamuning Bakery, was asked about the developments regarding impeachment complaints against Marcos, when he said that he agrees with calls to hold people accountable.

“I’ve been very consistent, ‘no?  Whether it’s regarding the impeachment of VP Sara or the impeachment of PBBM (Marcos), number one, my principle there is that everyone must be accountable.  There is no exception there, it’s very clear,” Tiangco said in mixed Filipino and English.

“That’s very clear, everyone must be held accountable,” he added.

But as it is the House of Representatives that will process the impeachment complaints — as the 1987 Constitution states that the chamber has “the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment” — Tiangco wonders if his colleagues have the moral ascendancy to seek accountability.

“The only question is, does Congress have the moral authority to be the one to hold this public officials accountable?  Right?  Do we have that?  That’s the only question eh, do we have the moral authority to hold them accountable?” he asked.

“Of course, it is a constitutional duty, there is no question about that.  But in exercising your constitutional duty, you should also ask, do you have the moral authority to exercise it?  Right?  Because as they say, before you look at others’ faults, look at your own self first,” he added.

Tiangco was referring to the alleged involvement of several House members regarding the infrastructure corruption scandal.

Scrutiny of infrastructure projects, particularly flood control, started after Marcos’ speech in his fourth State of the Nation Address, where he condemned government officials and contractors accused of receiving kickbacks from flood control projects.

Eventually, Marcos released a list of contractors, including a report that shows the top 15 contractors who secured more than 2,000 of the 10,000 flood control contracts.

READ: Sona 2025: Marcos on corrupt people in flood control deals: ‘Shame on you’

Investigations from different bodies — including Congress — followed suit, but several lawmakers were implicated as either having interests in the companies that do flood control projects, or were accused of diverting funds for such purposes.

The flood control scandal eventually reached Congress’ leadership: last September 8, 2025 former Senate President Francis Escudero was replaced by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, after Escudero was criticized for receiving a P30 million campaign donation in 2022 from a contractor whose firm was able to bag several government infrastructure projects.

In the House, Isabela Rep. Faustino “Bojie” Dy III was elected House Speaker after former Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez relinquished his post last September 17, 2025, to allow an independent commission to probe his alleged involvement in flood control issues.

Romualdez has not been connected to any of the top companies doing the flood control projects, but he was one of the lawmakers named by Discaya and his wife Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya, who allegedly received kickbacks from the contracts awarded to them.

The former Speaker and his allies, however, have maintained that there is no strong evidence that would link Romualdez to the flood control mess as of now, agreeing with Lacson’s views that the Senate blue ribbon committee cannot act since there is no evidence or firm proof linking Romualdez to the flood-control controversy.

READ: 2 House reps back Lacson: No evidence linking Romualdez to flood-control mess

Last Monday, lawyer Andre de Jesus filed the first-ever impeachment complaint against Marcos, which was endorsed by Pusong Pinoy party-list Rep. Jernie Jett Nisay.

The complaint was received by House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil.  On Wednesday, Garafil announced that she had already forwarded the complaints to Dy’s office.

However, there have been claims from several lawmakers that this impeachment complaint against Marcos is weak.  On Tuesday, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice said that the complaint “can easily be dismissed” due to lack of form and substance.

According to Erice, only one of the six grounds mentioned by de Jesus — the issue on unprogrammed appropriations and its role in the infrastructure corruption scandal — merits a second look.

Concerns about a weak complaint prompted other groups, first the Makabayan Coalition, to file their own impeachment raps against Marcos on Thursday.  On the same day, personalities supportive of former President Rodrigo Duterte also filed another complaint against the President.

Both complaints, however, were not formally filed as of posting time, as Garafil was not personally present to receive them.  Garafil is currently not in the office as she is in Taipei to receive the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon from Taiwan’s foreign ministry.

The three complaints were the first set of raps against Marcos since he took office in June 2022.  However, this is not the only impeachment rap tackled by the House under the current administration.

In late 2024, several groups filed impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, over corruption allegations involving the supposed misuse of confidential funds lodged within her offices from 2022 to 2024.

Then on February 5, 2025, 215 members of the House of the 19th Congress signed a fourth impeachment complaint.  Since 215 members are over one-third of the over 300 House lawmakers, the articles of impeachment were immediately transmitted to the Senate on the same day.

Under the 1987 Constitution, a trial must begin forthwith if at least one-third of all House members endorse the complaint.  However, the trial did not push through after the Senate remanded the articles to the House for alleged constitutional infirmities.

Eventually, the Supreme Court (SC) deemed the impeachment as unconstitutional for violating the one-year bar rule, as there were three impeachment complaints filed before the fast-track method was initiated.

Makabayan said earlier that they will file their own complaint after the one-year ban lapses, or by February 6, 2026. /mr