House to tackle Duterte impeachment complaints next week

FILE – Magdalo Party-List Representative Gary C. Alejano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The House of Representatives will tackle next week the two impeachment complaints lodged against President Rodrigo Duterte.

During plenary session, the lower House referred the two impeachment complaints against Duterte filed by Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano to the House justice committee.

READ: Marathon hearings set for 1st impeach case vs Duterte 

The justice committee will determine whether there is form and substance on the impeachment complaints.

Alejano filed the two impeachment complaints against Duterte for his alleged role in state-sponsored killings and the Davao Death Squad, as well as his alleged inaction to uphold the country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea, Panatag Shoal and Benham Rise amid the administration’s cooling of ties with China.

READ: Solon files impeach rap vs Duterte over West PH Sea, Benham Rise  | 1st impeachment complaint filed vs Duterte for killings, graft

Majority Leader Rudy Fariñas said the justice committee would tackle the impeachments complaint the earliest on Monday, May 15.

Justice committee chairperson Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali said his committee would dispose of the impeachment complaints in two hearings.

READ: House panel may dispose of Duterte impeachment raps in 2 hearings 

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said the lower House could only attend to the impeachment complaint against the President, having no time anymore for the two other planned impeachment complaints against Vice President Leni Robredo and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

READ: Impeach bids vs Duterte, Robredo, Morales too much to handle – Alvarez 

Alvarez was approached by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) to endorse its draft impeachment complaint against Morales, who was threatened with impeachment amid criticisms she is partial in investigating corruption complaints against allies of the former president Benigno Aquino III.

READ: Ombudsman on disbarment case: Wish them luck

Robredo was also threatened with impeachment complaints by Marcos loyalists and Duterte supporters for her video that was critical of the administration’s war on drugs which was sent to a United Nations body.

Speaker Alvarez has branded Robredo as “shameless” and vowed to pursue the impeachment complaint against her for painting the country before the international community in a bad light.

READ: Speaker calls Robredo ‘shameless,’ to pursue impeachment

Robredo’s impeachment complaints however have not yet been filed and endorsed by a member of Congress. Impeachment complaints filed by private individuals should be duly endorsed by a congressman/congresswoman.

READ: Impeach Leni bid has no endorser 

Robredo’s first impeachment complaint was endorsed for the Speaker’s support by Oliver Lozano and Melchor Chavez, both loyalists of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The dictator’s son Bongbong Marcos is Robredo’s political rival who filed an electoral protest after his defeat in the vice presidential race against Robredo.

Meanwhile, the second impeachment complaint against Robredo by lawyers Bruce Rivera and Trixie Cruz-Angeles faced a setback because the complaint bore the name of would-be endorser PBA Rep. Jericho Nograles, who denied agreeing to the endorsement. He accused the lawyers of misrepresentation.

READ: Nograles: There was ’miscommunication’ in Robredo impeachment complaint  | Group of lawyers, academics eyes impeach move vs Robredo