No impeachment talks during Marcos' 'fellowship' with House lawmakers, Chua says

The impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte were not discussed when President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. met House lawmakers in Malacanang, according to House good government and public accountability chairperson Joel Chua.

"Ay wala po. Wala pong napagusapang impeachment. Nagpunta lang po dun kasama 'yung ibang congressman ata party leaders, binigay lang sa Presidente yung resolusyon na ipasa ng House expressing full support to the President," Chua said in an interview on Unang Balita.

(There was no discussion of impeachment. We just went there with the other congressmen and we gave the President that was passed expressing our full support.)

“Pagkatapos po nung nagsalita po ang Pangulo, nagpasalamat sa mga miyembro at in-encourage na magtrabaho lang. Yun lang po. Tapos po ay nagkaroon ng konting picture taking, nagkaroon ng dinner,” Chua added.

(After the President’s speech, he thanked us and encouraged us to just continue doing our job. That’s it. We had picture-taking sessions and then dinner.)

Chua said that over 200 members of the House of Representatives were present during the said "fellowship" which he said ended at around 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, House Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V of La Union said there are no lobbying efforts to support the impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Duterte so far.

“Wala pa po [na mga lobbying]. We've been very  focused with the hearings (inquiries). That remains our focus. Marami pong lumabas na mga impeachable na bagay during the hearings pero hindi pa po namin napag-uusapan as a group and as the majority hanggang ngayon,” Ortega said in a separate press conference on Thursday.

(There’s no lobbying yet... There were impeachable offenses during the hearings but we are yet to talk about this as a group, as a majority bloc, as of today.)

“Never pa namin napag-usapan” Ortega added.

(We have never talked about it.)

On Thursday, House members released a manifesto reaffirming their support for Marcos "at all costs."

Marcos previously said that he is not supportive of any impeachment plan against Duterte, who was his running mate in the 2022 elections. Marcos also confirmed a text message where he was urging lawmakers not to file an impeachment complaint against the Vice President.

—VAL/RF, GMA Integrated News