House to process impeachment complaint vs Sara Duterte — lawmakers

Two lawmakers on Tuesday said the House of Representatives will process the impeachment complaint filed against Vice President Sara Duterte, citing their constitutional mandate.

Bataan 1st District Rep. Geraldine Roman said the lower chamber has “no choice” but to work on the complaint as it is a part of their duties.

“From a purely Constitutional point-of-view, bahagi ito ng mandato ng Kongreso. Kung mayroong nag-file ng impeachment complaint, we have no choice but to process the entire complaint,” Roman told reporters in a media briefing.

“It has to go through the entire process — from the filing to the referral to the Justice Committee, to the deliberations, the voting, and if approved, the referral to the Senate,” Roman said.

Advocacy groups including civil society organizations, religious leaders, sectoral representatives, and families of victims of extrajudicial killings filed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte and this was endorsed by Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña on Monday afternoon.

The complaint was filed in the Secretary General’s office at the House of Representatives and was officially received by House Secretary General Reginald Velasco at 4:30 p.m.

For his part, House Deputy Majority Leader and Tingog party list Rep. Jude Acidre echoed Roman’s remarks, saying legislators are “bound on the mandate to act on an impeachment complaint filed with the House”.

“The leadership has yet to give their definite guidance on the matter but nonetheless, I think most of us members of Congress, are one in saying that were are ready to undertake our Constitutionally bound duty to tackle the impeachment complaint,” Acidre said.

Both legislators expressed worry over the timeline for the processing of the impeachment complaint.

“If we start by January, tapos magbbreak ng bandang February at mag-resume, dahil election year, bandang Mayo na, kailan pa? But walang choice kundi gawin ang trabaho ng Kongreso,” said Roman.

(If we start by January, take a break by February and resume by May, when will we process this? But again, we have no choice but to fulfill our mandate.)

“Rest assured na kung ano man ang processing, deliberations, they will be transparent and they will follow what to take in mind…Papakinggan natin lahat ng panig. Due process will be followed,” she added.

(Rest assured that whatever the process is, we will be transparent. We will listen to all sides and due process will be followed.)

Malacañang has since distanced from the impeachment complaint with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Tuesday saying the Office of the President has nothing to do with it.

“The impeachment complaint filed in the House of Representatives by several private citizens is clearly the complainants’ independent initiative, and its endorsement the prerogative of any Member of the House of Representatives,” Bersamin said.

“The Office of the President has nothing to do with it,” he added.

The impeachment plans against Duterte rose after she said that she would have Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed if she herself was assassinated.

She later clarified that her “kill” remark was taken out of logical context.

However, her statement drew criticisms from several government officials and even legal experts. — BAP, GMA Integrated News