Businessmen: Impeach cases might harm Philippine investments

MANILA, Philippines — The Makati Business Club (MBC) has expressed serious concern over the potential harm the filing of impeachment cases against top government officials may bring to the country’s development and attractiveness to investors.

In a statement yesterday, the business group said it is deeply concerned over the unprecedented number of impeachment complaints lodged against high-ranking officials such as the President, the Chief Justice, the ombudsman and those from the Commission on Elections.

“We wish to express serious concern over the implications of impeachment cases on our nation’s development. We worry that these would divert the attention of Congress away from addressing the heavy legislative agenda which, in turn, will have an unfavorable impact on the attainment of the government’s ten-point socioeconomic agenda,” the MBC said.

“Undoubtedly, impeachment cases will also negatively affect investors’ perception of the economic and political stability of our country,” it added.

The MBC said that while it remains steadfast in its position that an impeachment process is a vital part of the country’s democratic system of checks and balances, the group believes that the process engraved in the Constitution “must not be invoked arbitrarily to persecute and silence individuals with opposing views, nor to undermine independent institutions, the bulwark of our nation’s democracy.”