President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (right), who recently faced death threats from his vice president Sara Duterte (left), has denied any move to impeach her. - AP
MANILA: Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has been locked in a feud with Vice President Sara Duterte, disavowed an effort to impeach his deputy despite her apparent threat to have him killed.
Marcos’ office "has nothing to do” with the impeachment complaint filed Monday (Dec 2) at the House of Representatives, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement on Tuesday (Dec 3). He referred to Marcos’ "unambiguous” remarks last week that an impeachment bid would be a waste of time.
The complaint, which alleged corruption, bribery and other crimes by Duterte, was filed by civil-society groups and endorsed by a lawmaker representing a progressive party called Akbayan, which has opposed Marcos in the past. The House has roughly two weeks to act on the complaint and refer it to a committee.
Similar complaints have been filed against other Philippine leaders before, including former President Rodrigo Duterte, but they can be quickly dismissed by lawmakers and there’s little appetite for pursuing a case before midterm elections in May.
"I don’t think any senator would want to risk having an impeachment trial before the elections because that will really have a great toll on their political capital,” said Froilan Calilung, who teaches political science at the University of Santo Tomas, suggesting that it may not be endorsed by the House of Representatives’ justice committee. "Certainly, they don’t want to antagonize the Duterte followers.”
Markets appeared largely unmoved in early Tuesday morning trading, with the peso little changed and the benchmark Philippine stock index marginally lower after rising 2% on Monday.
The complaint could be dismissed in committee or referred to the full House for a vote. At least a third of all members of the House of Representatives needs to approve the petition for it to move to the Senate which has the sole authority to try and decide impeachment cases. Marcos allies control more than 80% of the House, but they might not have the required two-thirds support in the Senate.
Former President Joseph Estrada was the first and only Philippine leader to have been impeached by the House in 2000. He was later ousted in a popular revolt in 2001 while an impeachment trial was underway in the Senate. No vice president has been impeached but other deputies have faced complaints including Leni Robredo, who preceded Sara Duterte as vice president.
Duterte is already grappling with multiple threats, including a House review of her office’s use of funds and a police complaint into an alleged assault last week. She has also been summoned by the National Bureau of Investigation to explain her recent apparent threat to Marcos, which was also cited in the impeachment complaint as evidence of her "depravity” and "mental incapacity” to serve.
The complaint was filed at the House of Representatives just three days after Marcos warned any impeachment effort would be a potential distraction that could slow reforms, calling his dispute with Duterte a "storm in a teacup.” The wide-ranging allegations touch upon Duterte’s behavior as vice president and as former head of the education department and mayor of Davao City.
"The problem with this impeachment complaint, I think it is a bit haphazard,” Calilung said. "But then again this will be a prelude to a stronger impeachment complaint that could be filed next year.”
Duterte has yet to respond to the impeachment complaint and a spokesperson said the matter has been relayed to her.
Senate President Chiz Escudero warned senators to refrain from making any public comments on the the allegations.
"Should the Senate be called upon to act as an impeachment court, any perception of bias or pre-judgment would undermine not only the integrity of the impeachment trial but also the public’s trust in the Senate as an institution,” Escudero said in a statement posted to Instagram.
Just two years after they won election on a joint ticket, Duterte’s relationship with Marcos has completely broken down. She claimed late last month that - in the event of her death - she had arranged for the killing of the president, his wife and his cousin, the House speaker. Her father had previously publicly bragged of directing a "death squad” to kill criminals.
The impeachment complaint cited Sara Duterte’s alleged "meltdown” when she made the remarks, which included the statement she claimed to have made to an unidentified person: "I told him, don’t stop until you have killed them and then he said yes.”
"The Vice President has reduced public office to a platform for violent rhetoric, personal enrichment, elitist entitlement and a shield for impunity,” Teresita Quintos Deles, one of the complainants, said in the Monday statement. "Her continued grip on power insults every Filipino who stands for good governance and the rule of law.”
The 46-year old Sara Duterte, a lawyer, has said her comments were taken out of context.
"Tossing the word ‘assassin’ into this issue makes things even more terrifying - and especially because I never used that term during my recent consternation,” she said in a Nov 26 Facebook post.
Duterte’s remarks have raised concerns in the Philippines, a young democracy where the current president’s father was dictator until the 1980s.
Indeed, Rodrigo Duterte last week followed up on his daughter’s comments by asking for the military to correct "fractured governance,” remarks that some interpreted as a call for the army to intervene, even as he said he wasn’t calling for a coup. - Bloomberg
