2 Marcos loyalists seek endorsement of impeachment rap vs Robredo

A serial impeachment complaint filer and a perennial candidate on Monday asked Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to endorse their impeachment complaint against Vice President Leni Robredo.

Atty. Oliver Lozano and Melchor Chavez sent a letter to Alvarez requesting him to endorse their impeachment complaint against Robredo.

They accused Robredo of allegedly committing betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution due to her criticisms of the administration’s drug war in a video she sent to the United Nations.

“We respectfully request that you endorse the attached complaint for impeachment against Leni Robredo,” Lozano and Chavez said in their letter to Alvarez.

Lozano was a notorious serial impeachment filer during the administrations of Gloria Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. He filed an impeachment complaint against Arroyo five times and Aquino twice. Lozano was a former lawyer of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Meanwhile, Chavez is a known perennial candidate and a member of Marcos’ political party Kilusang Bagong Lipunan.

READ: For stealing his thunder, serial impeachment filer sues solon

The Marcos loyalists said Robredo is a “termite of the government” and that her “unfaithfulness has extended to the betrayal of the public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.”

According to the impeachment complaint, Robredo “betrayed the people by shaming the nation with her dishonest message to the United Nation.”

“The respondent is duty bound to act within the framework of the Constitution but her acts of dishonesty and moral bankruptcy breached the bounds of the fundamental law,” the complaint read.

In a text message to reporters, Alvarez said he has yet to read the draft impeachment complaint.

In a statement, Robredo’s staunch ally Deputy Speaker Miro Quimbo said the lower House should not waste its time on the “baseless complaint” against the vice president.

The Marikina congressman said the House should not allow itself to be used by “recidivist impeachers” who “trivialize this deeply sacred accountability measure enshrined in our Constitution.”

“We must not allow Congress and its members to be dragged into their petty political charades,” Quimbo said.

Chavez and Lozano asked Alvarez to endorse the impeachment complaint just after the Speaker said he was studying the possibility of filing an impeachment complaint against Robredo for betrayal of public trust.

Alvarez bristled at Robredo’s video message to the United Nations critical of the administration’s war on drugs and accused the Vice President of painting the country in a bad light before the international community, which has serious economic consequences.

“Ang pananaw ko dito, may betrayal of public trust (In my view, there’s betrayal of public trust),” Alvarez said.

READ: Speaker: ‘Worried’ Robredo involved in move to impeach Duterte

“Kung ikaw, ipagpapalagay nating totoo ang pagkakahalal, sisiraan mo ang bayan sa international community nang walang pakundangan, ano ang magiging epekto nun? Economically, may impact po yun,” Alvarez said.

(If we assume that her election in office was legitimate and true, and then you put the country in a bad light before the international community, what would be the effect of that? Economically, there will be an impact.)

“Pinipinta niya ang bayan natin na hindi maganda sa mata ng international community,” Alvarez added.

(She is painting the country in a bad light before the eyes of the international community.)

Alvarez also took a hit at the legitimacy of Vice President Robredo, who faces an election protest filed by former senator Bongbong Marcos after the latter lost by a margin of 200,000 votes. Bongbong is the son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

READ: Robredo to Marcos: Move on

An impeachment complaint was mulled against Robredo just days after Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano first filed the complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte for the latter’s alleged hand in the vigilante killings by the Davao Death Squad and the spate of extrajudicial killings at the height of his administration’s war on drugs, as well as his alleged P2.2 billion hidden wealth.

READ: 1st impeachment complaint filed vs Duterte for killings, graft

Alvarez then tagged Robredo as being behind the impeachment move against Duterte, noting that the filing of Magdalo’s impeachment complaint coincided with her message to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs blasting the administration’s narcotics war.

Robredo also exposed the alleged “palit ulo” scheme where poor families were rounded up by the police who would then demand that relatives would be taken in exchange for the accused drug personalities if the latter were missing.

Robredo’s six-minute video is scheduled to be shown at the 60th United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting in Vienna./rga/ac

RELATED STORIES

Robredo brings fight against Duterte to UN 

Robredo reveals gov’t forces use ‘palit-ulo scheme’ in drug war