President Marcos' position against the filing of impeachment cases against Vice President Sara Duterte remains unchanged, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said.
"The president's position on the impeachment move in the HoR (House of Representatives) has not changed," Bersamin stated.
The Executive Secretary made the statement on Tuesday, Jan. 14, in response to a query on whether or not the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) peace rally had an effect on Marcos' stand that Duterte should not be impeached.
Marcos said last year that efforts to impeach the Vice President, his former ally, is a waste of time. It will not make any difference to even one single Filipino, he said in a leaked private text message instructing lawmakers not to lodge an impeachment complaint against Duterte.
He later confirmed that the text message came from him.
The leaked message read: “In the larger scheme of things, Sara is unimportant. So please do not file impeachment complaints. It will only distract us from the real work of governance which is to improve the [lives] of all Filipinos."
In early December last year, Bersamin also said that the President has nothing to do with the impeachment complaints filed against Duterte.
"The Office of the President has nothing to do with it," Bersamin had stressed.
"The President has been very clear about his position on this. So, any suggestion na political iyan (that it's political) or instigated by our side, no. That is never true," the Palace official added.
The influential INC staged a peace rally attended by a mammoth crowd on Monday, Jan. 13. It was aimed to call for unity and to set aside political divisions in favor of a shared vision of peace.
On Dec. 19, the third impeachment complaint against the Vice President Duterte was filed.
NBI's probe
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said yesterday it would push through with its probe on Vice President Duterte despite the "show of support" made by the INC on President Marcos' stance against her impeachment.
Justice Secretary Crispin C. Remulla pointed this out to reporters after the INC’s National Rally for Peace, which many believed, was a show of support against Duterte's impeachment.
Several impeachment complaints have been filed against Duterte before the House of Representatives.
The NBI is probing into the press conference held by Duterte in November last year where she claimed to have ordered someone, in the event she dies, to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
When asked by journalists if the INC’s "show of support" might influence the investigation, Remulla said: “I don't think so kasi (because) we just have to look at the law as something that equalizes everything between all of us.”
“That's why we cannot give special favors to people because of standing,” he said.
He said he was not opposed to the INC’s decision in holding Monday’s national rally.
“I'm not concerned about that because it's their freedom. They have the freedom to express themselves and we respect that freedom. We guard that freedom zealously,” he stressed.
Prosecutor General Richard Anthony D. Fadullon said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has already finished its investigation concerning the "threat" reportedly aired by the Vice President.
Fadullon said “we are sending prosecutors over to look at the evidence and evaluate the evidence that is in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.”
“Depending on the outcome, we will be able to make a recommendation whether to have it considered filed already before the department and/or to return it to the NBI if there is a need to build-up the case further and to add to the evidence they already have,” he said.
Pinoys must speak out
Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said it's time for other Filipinos' voices to be heard regarding the moves to impeach Duterte following the INC’s mammoth rally on Monday that drew an estimated 1.5 million people.
Although it was presented as a gathering for peace and national unity, the rally undoubtedly had political undertones. It was attended by political allies of the beleaguered Vice President, who is being hounded by a total of three impeachment complaints.
"Well, it made me think of how many more unspoken voices are yet to be heard about all these issues. Siyempre magandang isipin din at magandang pakinggan na ano pa yung sinasabi ng iba," Acidre said in a television interview. (Of course, it's good to think about and listen to what others are saying.)
Acidre is a supporter of the impeachment raps against Duterte.
"It also presents us with a challenge of further explaining our position why such a process should continue," the congressman from Visayas said.
'We are not naive'
Amando Virgil Ligutan, legal counsel of individuals behind the third impeachment complaint filed against the Vice President, agreed that Filipinos are for peace but insisted that “they are not naïve.”
"Filipinos are for peace, but we are NOT stupid," Ligutan wrote on X Monday night.
"Peace without justice is no peace. It’s appeasement to greed, corruption, and impunity," he further said.
Ligutan would later revise his X post to read: "Filipinos are for peace, but we are NOT naive."
Complaints and endorsers of the three verified impeachment raps are waiting for the impeachment process to formally start in the House of Representatives.
Last Dec. 19, Ligutan led a group of priests and lawyers in filing the third impeachment complaint against Vice President Duterte. The complainants include members of the Congregation of Mission and Union of People's Lawyers of Mindanao.
"The grounds for impeachment invoked by the complainants are the following: number one, culpable violation of the Constitution; we also have the ground of bribery; we also have the ground graft and corruption; plunder; malversation and technical malversation. The ultimate sa (on the) ground is betrayal of public trust," Ligutan said during the filing.
Last week, the lawyer said of Duterte: "There is palpable broad-based support to the initiatives to hold her accountable for the controversial manner she spent the multi-million confidential funds entrusted to her by the Filipino people, and her even more controversial stance not to explain to the public how she did it." (With Ellson Quismorio)