Impeachment bid vs Robredo triggers Senate catfight

Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Francis Pangilinan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Francis Pangilinan on Tuesday verbally sparred over the impeachment bid against Vice President Leni Robredo by President Duterte’s allies in Congress.

Pangilinan was incensed over Pimentel’s suggestion for the Liberal Party (LP) to denounce the Magdalo party-list group for filing the impeachment complaint against President Duterte to prove the party had nothing to do with it.

“Pimentel et al. stripped us of our committee chairmanships for not toeing the admin line on extrajudicial killings, the Marcos burial, the Lascañas hearing and the BI hearings and then he expects us to denounce the impeachment proceedings to prove to him we aren’t behind the filing of the complaint?” Pangilinan said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Who is he to tell us what to do? He is not the only senator who was elected. We are not behind the impeachment complaint but we are also not puppets who will just follow,” he said of Pimentel.

But Pimentel fired back at Pangilinan, stressing that LP senators were the first to attack him when they advised him on Monday to focus on the “numbers that matter” alluding to the government’s antidrugs crackdown that has left thousands dead instead of talking about the impeachment bid versus Robredo.

“They, too, forgot my mandate and I was also elected by the people. Respect for each other is key,” Pimentel told reporters.

LP senators had slammed Pimentel for saying that there was a chance for the impeachment complaint against Robredo to prosper in the House controlled by President Duterte’s allies.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez had threatened to file an impeachment complaint against Robredo, whom he accused of playing a part in an impeachment complaint earlier filed against the President by Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano.

The impeachment complaint against the President came a day before Robredo gave a video message before the United Nations that criticized his bloody war on drugs.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, meanwhile, dismissed as “political diversions” the impeachment complaint against Robredo.

“They need to demonize the Vice President to divert public attention … She’s just quietly doing her job,” Trillanes said.

He insisted the Magdalo party had a track record of exposing corruption, and that no one was manipulating it.