House throws out Marcos impeach cases

284-8-4 in plenary voting

MANILA, Philippines — Efforts to impeach President Marcos are now dead.

Voting 284-8-4, House lawmakers yesterday upheld the dismissal of two impeachment complaints filed against the President.

No impeachment complaints against Marcos will be accepted for a whole year.

The plenary vote affirms the House justice committee’s dismissal of the two impeachment complaints accusing Marcos of betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption and culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution, among others.

Officials and members of the justice panel, led by Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, last week found the complaints “sufficient in form” but wanting in substance.

“Complaints that are fundamentally insufficient in substance must be dismissed, not indulged for the sake of political theater,” Luistro emphasized.

Political parties allied with the super majority coalition, such as the National Unity Party and Nationalist People’s Coalition, lauded the House plenary’s decision to throw out the impeachment complaints against Marcos.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have objected to the adoption of the justice panel’s Committee Report 111 and House Resolution 746, which dismissed the two complaints.

Members of the Makabayan bloc – Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Jane Elago, Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Louise Co and Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio – have maintained that “the majority’s arguments for rejecting the impeachment complaints are baseless, dishonest and designed to protect the President rather than uphold their constitutional mandate.”

Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said the dismissal “settles nothing. It answers nothing. It clears no one.”

“It ends a process before the process can do what it was designed to do: test allegations, demand accountability and let the public see how truth is confronted under the rules of our democracy,” she added.

Marcos ‘happy

Malacañang, meanwhile, said Marcos was pleased by the House’s decision.

“The President is happy that 284 members of the House of Representatives believed in the truth and decided to dismiss the impeachment complaints against him,” Palace officer Claire Castro said in a text message.

“For now, the President wants to move forward and continue working. He is focusing on crafting programs on the economy that will uplift the lives of every Filipino family,” she added. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Emmanuel Tupas, Alexis Romero