Rody: Respect my mandate, also VP’s

MANILA, Philippines - President Duterte reiterated yesterday his call on his political allies and the rest of the nation to respect the mandate given to him and Vice President Leni Robredo amid heated rhetoric and impeachment cases filed against them after only nine months in office.

He lamented that the impeachment moves, whether against him or Robredo, would not benefit the nation. 

“We just had the elections and we go into … ousting our officials, including me. We should forget politics,” he said.

“Let the elected officials of this country do their work. You know, whatever happens, the leaders are elected by the people, if it turns out to be sons of a b**ch, it’s… for the people to decide what to do. For the meantime, let’s stay on the right path and just work,” Duterte said in an ambush interview in Bukidnon yesterday where he led the groundbreaking of a drug treatment and rehabilitation center.

Duterte said he has not given much thought to the filing of an impeachment complaint against him to avoid being distracted.

“I don’t even answer the challenges and the charges. It’s useless,” he said.

“I would say ‘let’s stop it.’ We just had elections, we just got here about nine months, and now we are into the thing of ousting elected leaders. Mabigat ‘yan (That’s heavy). They are elected leaders, the votes of the Filipinos are sacred,” he said.  “Let it remain this way.”

Last Wednesday, Duterte told his congressional allies to drop impeachment efforts against Robredo, but on Thursday night he again accused her of plotting to oust him, along with detained Sen. Leila de Lima and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who are his arch critics.

Cool it

Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, for his part, said the country should focus on bigger concerns to uplift the plight of Filipinos rather than on personalities amid the impeachment talks.

“I hope cooler heads will prevail,” he said.

Aquino, who is from the Liberal Party that Robredo now leads as its highest elected official, also stressed “the top one and two leaders of the country have spoken. I hope that would be a sign to all.”

Aquino was referring to the President’s call to stop the impeachment moves against Robredo as he noted it was natural for her to be a critic because they belong to different political groups.

Duterte, however, echoed Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s accusation that Robredo appeared to be in a hurry to replace him.

But Robredo said she was not behind the impeachment complaint that Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano filed against Duterte on various grounds, and that her criticisms against the government’s war on drugs and other issues should not be taken as acts of destabilization or moves for her to become president right away.

It was Alvarez who accused Robredo of involvement in Alejano’s impeachment complaint and said she herself must be impeached for the video she sent to the United Nations Commission on Narcotics Drugs criticizing the administration’s war on drugs.

Alvarez said they would proceed with Robredo’s impeachment despite the President’s statements.

In an ABS-CBN News report, Trillanes was quoted as saying Duterte’s defense of Robredo is mere drama and that the President is taking on the role of a “good cop” to distract the public from thinking he has something to do with impeachment plans against the Vice President.

“Be careful believing President Duterte. He is two-faced. This is all staged. You shouldn’t be fooled, because we can see through him,” Trillanes said.

If they proceed with it, Aquino said Robredo has stated that she is ready to face whatever it is she has to face. “So let’s just wait and see,” he said.

Aquino said they would act independently and fairly should the impeachment complaints reach the Senate.

“We are not robots that follow anything we’re told to do,” Aquino, who was at  the Pangasinan State University in Lingayen, Pangasinan Friday afternoon, said.

“We are capable of seeing what is right and what is not,” Aquino said, adding, “What I hope to see is each congressman and senator, regardless of our political alliances, capable of discerning the truth.”

People’s pulse

For Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, the statements of Duterte about Robredo, De Lima and Trillanes being part of the destabilization efforts against his administration were mere reflections of the sentiments of the public.

Whether or not they actually are part of a destabilization plot against the administration, Sotto said the actions of the three officials show that they want to remove the President.

Sotto said the public is disappointed at how the three officials have constantly criticized the President, who has not even enjoyed a full first year in office yet.

He pointed to members of the majority bloc, most of whom belong to different political parties not affiliated with the President, but who have given Duterte their support, at least in his first year in office.

“We are not his partymates but we show that we appreciate the good things his administration is doing,” said Sotto in an interview over dwIZ.

In a separate interview, Trillanes said that the President has become paranoid and is starting to see things which are not really there.

Trillanes explained that the legal actions that he and his fellow Magdalo group members have initiated against the President have nothing to do with the Vice President or even the LP.

He noted that what he has presented are serious allegations involving crimes against humanity, murder and corruption.

Trillanes said that he and his fellow Magdalo group members are merely availing themselves of the legal options available to them in trying to make the country’s officials accountable for their actions.

“Duterte is diverting the issue. He is insulting and maligning us but he is not answering the issues raised against him,” Trillanes said.

He explained that the actions they have taken were not meant to destabilize or remove the President from power.

“We are just following the system of government wherein if you have done something wrong you will be held accountable, even if you are president,” Trillanes said. – With Eva Visperas, Marvin Sy