MANILA, Philippines - House allies of President Duterte are expected to affirm this week the justice committee’s rejection of the impeachment complaint against President Duterte for lack of substance.
“The public can expect the plenary to affirm the dismissed impeachment complaint against President Duterte this Wednesday,” Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House committee on justice, said.
Umali will sponsor the committee report this week to allow his colleagues to vote on the matter before Congress adjourns sine die on June 2.
House Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu, a stalwart of the Nacionalista Party now allied with Duterte’s PDP-Laban, said his colleagues will “respect the overwhelming mandate given by the people to the President.”
“It is expected that the overwhelming majority of our colleagues under the super majority will sustain the decision of the House committee on justice, giving protection to the President from facing a similar ouster complaint for a period of one year,” he said.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said the dismissal of the impeachment complaint in the plenary would help lawmakers focus their attention on important pending legislative matters.
“We can focus on crafting reform laws that would help President Duterte achieve his government’s goal of sustaining the growth momentum, drastically reducing poverty and transforming our country into an upper middle income economy by 2022,” he said.
“The committee has already junked or dismissed the complaint on the alleged insufficiency of substance. It’s virtually dead. The plenary would preside over the funeral rites,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, titular head of the so-called Magnificent 7 independent opposition bloc, told ANC.
The Albay congressman, who backed complainant-endorser Rep. Gary Alejano of party-list Magdalo, acknowledged the fate of the suit, following the decision of 42 members of the House committee on justice to dismiss the case outright.
“The complaint of Congressman Alejano was summarily and precipitately dismissed. It signaled the requiem for due process, fairness and judiciousness and hallelujah to inordinate partisanship,” Lagman said.
Interestingly, it was Lagman who was largely responsible for the dismissal of the four successive impeachment complaints against former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2005 to 2008, by invoking “prejudicial questions.”
Lagman was an ally of Arroyo in the once dominant Lakas-CMD party before he switched allegiance to the Liberal Party of former president Benigno Aquino III in 2010.
Administration lawmaker Salvador Leachon of Oriental Mindoro advised Lagman’s group to just accept the fact that democracy worked in the deliberations in the justice committee.
“You must accept the reality that, well, it’s political. Congressmen are also human beings. They have the conscience, they have the heart,” he said.
Leachon told host Karen Davila over her “Headstart” program on ANC that “not even 10 or 20” congressmen would vote to oppose the dismissal of the complaint against Duterte, who continues to enjoy popular support.