Impeach Duterte? Not a chance–Belmonte

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte on Tuesday said there was “zero” chance for impeachment moves against incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, and described talk that Vice President-elect Leni Robredo could benefit from an ouster plan as “rubbish.”

“I don’t know where the word impeachment comes from but let’s face it, the chances of that is zero and nobody will even think of it,” Belmonte told reporters.

He also said Duterte should be “given the chance to run the country without talk of impeachment or anything like that being uttered by anybody of whatever political party.”

“We should be talking about confidence… and not raising fears here such that there is so much negativism. This is a new administration. Let’s think positive as a people, as politicians, as everything. Let’s be positive. Let’s look forward to great achievements for our people instead of talking about negative ideas like impeachment. We’ll be doing ourselves a big disservice (if we do that),” Belmonte said.

Belmonte admitted he had “been part of a number of impeachments”—from that of former President now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, and the aborted proceedings against then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

But Belmonte, head of the Liberal Party (LP) bloc,  said he does not see any reason for Duterte to feel or think that there are moves to remove him from office.

To the question of whether Robredo, the LP’s candidate, would stand to gain from a Duterte impeachment, Belmonte replied: “Yan ang malaking kalokohan. Yan ang intriga na sinasabi ng mga tao… Yan ang number one intriga sa lahat. (That’s rubbish. That’s the intrigue going around… the biggest intrigue).”