Duterte challenges critics: Go ahead, impeach me

MANILA, Philippines — Drop the talk. Go ahead, impeach me. 

 

This was President Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge to critics who claimed that he may be impeached for supposedly siding with the policemen tagged in the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa.

 

RELATED: Duterte won't abandon cops in Espinosa slay

 

Duterte has said that he won’t abandon the Criminal and Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) personnel involved in Espinosa’s death even if the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had concluded that the mayor was killed in a rubout. 

 

RELATED: NBI: Espinosa slay was a rubout, not shootout
 

Duterte’s critic Sen. Leila de Lima had said the president’s defense of the policemen can be considered an impeachable offense. According to her, Duterte’s act was tantamount to pardon, something that only the courts can do. 

 

Duterte, however, was unfazed by De Lima’s statement. 

 

“They can go ahead. Maraming daldal. (They talk too much),” the president told reporters in Albay

 

“I have to satisfy their lust for whatever. Let them be. Impeachable? Go ahead.”

 

Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said Duterte’s support for the CIDG operatives does not constitute an impeachable offense.

 

READ: Duterte accuses LP of seeking to oust him

 

“The duty of the president is to protect the members of the PNP (Philippine National Police) who are enforcing the law, his instructions. The NBI results show that the NBI does not interfere with any government agency doing their work. But it doesn't mean NBI is correct, because the courts have to decide whether they are correct or not,” Panelo said in a chance interview. 

 

“Why should it be an impeachable offense? Is it even an offense? It is a duty being done by [the] president.”  

Malacañang also shrugged off the allegation of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that Duterte was the mastermind behind the death of Espinosa, dismissing it as a mere speculation.  

 

“That’s not fair, that’s not true,” Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Banaag said in a press briefing. 

 

Trillanes claimed that Duterte’s statement that he would not let the policemen go to prison because they were just following orders proved that the president was behind the crime. 

 

Banaag, however, said the president was just emphasizing his tough stance against illegal drugs.

 

“What he (Duterte) ordered was the war on illegal drugs, he did not order the death (of Espinosa),” she said.

 

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Duterte was boosting the morale of the PNP when he expressed his support for the CIDG personnel tagged in the Espinosa slay. 

 

“The recent pronouncements of the president pertaining to the PNP, standing by his men, are critical to maintaining their high morale, with the end in view of succeeding in the anti-drug campaign,” Andanar said.

 

RELATED: Despite ouster plots, Palace says Duterte 'very secure' in post

 

“It should not be misinterpreted to mean that the president will intervene in investigations or any legal proceedings in order to exculpate erring cops,” he added.

 

Andanar said while the president continues to adhere to the presumption of regularity in the PNP's performance of its duties, “he states in no uncertain terms that he will not interfere with any legal proceeding.”