Marcos disavows Philippine impeachment case against Vice-President Duterte
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Former senator Lilia de Lima holding a copy of an impeachment complaint against Vice-President Sara Duterte on Dec 2.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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MANILA – Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has been locked in a feud with Vice-President Sara Duterte, disavowed an effort to impeach Ms Duterte
Mr Marcos’ office “has nothing to do” with the impeachment complaint filed on Dec 2 at the House of Representatives, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement on Dec 3.
He referred to Mr Marcos’ “unambiguous” remarks last week that an impeachment bid would be a waste of time
The complaint, which alleged corruption, bribery and other crimes by Ms Duterte, was filed by civil society groups and endorsed by a lawmaker representing a progressive party called Akbayan, which has opposed Mr Marcos in the past.
The House has roughly two weeks to act on the complaint and refer it to a committee.
Similar complaints have been filed against other Philippine leaders before, including former president Rodrigo Duterte, but they can be quickly dismissed by lawmakers and there is little appetite for pursuing a case before midterm elections in May.
“I don’t think any senator would want to risk having an impeachment trial before the elections because that will really have a great toll on their political capital,” said Professor Froilan Calilung, who teaches political science at the University of Santo Tomas, suggesting that it may not be endorsed by the House of Representatives’ justice committee.
“Certainly, they don’t want to antagonise the Duterte followers,” he said.
The complaint could be dismissed in committee or referred to the full House for a vote.
At least a third of all members of the House of Representatives needs to approve the petition for it to move to the Senate, which has the sole authority to try and decide impeachment cases.
Mr Marcos’ allies control more than 80 per cent of the House, but they might not have the required two-thirds support in the Senate.
Former president Joseph Estrada was the first and only Philippine leader to have been impeached by the House in 2000. He was later ousted in a popular revolt in 2001 while an impeachment trial was under way in the Senate.
No vice-president has been impeached, but other deputies have faced complaints, including Ms Leni Robredo, who preceded Ms Duterte as vice-president.
Complaint is ‘a bit haphazard’
Ms Duterte is already grappling with multiple threats, including a House review of her office’s use of funds and a police complaint into an alleged assault last week.
She has also been summoned by the National Bureau of Investigation to explain her recent apparent threat to Mr Marcos, which was also cited in the impeachment complaint as evidence of her “depravity” and “mental incapacity” to serve.
The complaint was filed at the House of Representatives just three days after Mr Marcos warned any impeachment effort would be a potential distraction that could slow reforms, calling his dispute with Ms Duterte a “storm in a teacup”.
The wide-ranging allegations touch upon Ms Duterte’s behaviour as vice-president and as former head of the education department and mayor of Davao City.
“The problem with this impeachment complaint, I think it is a bit haphazard,” Prof Calilung said. “But then again, this will be a prelude to a stronger impeachment complaint that could be filed in 2025.”
Senate President Chiz Escudero warned senators to refrain from making any public comments on the allegations.
“Should the Senate be called upon to act as an impeachment court, any perception of bias or pre-judgment would undermine not only the integrity of the impeachment trial but also the public’s trust in the Senate as an institution,” Mr Escudero said in a statement posted to Instagram.
Just two years after they won election on a joint ticket, Ms Duterte’s relationship with Mr Marcos has completely broken down.
She claimed late in November that – in the event of her death – she had arranged for the killing of the president, his wife and his cousin, the House speaker.
Her father had previously publicly bragged of directing a “death squad”
The impeachment complaint cited Ms Duterte’s alleged “meltdown” when she made the remarks, which included the statement she claimed to have made to an unidentified person: “I told him, don’t stop until you have killed them, and then he said yes.”
“The vice-president has reduced public office to a platform for violent rhetoric, personal enrichment, elitist entitlement and a shield for impunity,” Ms Teresita Quintos Deles, one of the complainants, said in the Dec 2 statement.
“Her continued grip on power insults every Filipino who stands for good governance and the rule of law.”
The 46-year-old Ms Duterte, a lawyer, has said her comments were taken out of context.
“Tossing the word ‘assassin’ into this issue makes things even more terrifying – and especially because I never used that term during my recent consternation,” she said in a Nov 26 Facebook post.
Ms Duterte’s remarks have raised concerns in the Philippines, a young democracy where the current president’s father was dictator until the 1980s.
Indeed, Mr Duterte last week followed up on his daughter’s comments by asking for the military to correct “fractured governance”
