Duterte impeach bid referred to House justice panel
FILE – Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano files a supplemental impeachment rap against Pres. Rodrigo Duterte for treason. MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB/INQUIRER.net
The House of Representatives has referred to the Committee on Justice the impeachment complaint filed against President Duterte at Tuesday’s plenary session.
Magdalo partylist Representative Gary Alejano moved for the impeachment of Mr. Duterte.
Alejano said the President was accountable for the thousands of deaths resulting from the administration’s war against drugs.
Mr. Duterte also allegedly amassed ill-gotten wealth amounting to more than P2 billion, hired some 11,000 ghost employees during his term as Davao City mayor, and failed to assert the country’s rights in disputed territories with China, according to Alejano in his impeachment complaint.
The minority bloc of the House urged the Committee on Justice to conduct hearings on the impeachment complaint against President Duterte, and not to fast-track the proceedings owing to the “superiority of numbers.”
“The Committee on Justice cannot dismiss or sustain outright a duly filed and properly referred impeachment complaint without conducting a proper hearing as mandated by the Constitution,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said in a press conference.
Lagman said that the Constitution “envisions” two phases of an impeachment hearing: a preliminary hearing on the sufficiency of form and substance of the complaint; and a full blown hearing to determine the absence or existence of probable cause to impeach the respondent, after finding the complaint sufficient in form and substance.
