Manila, Philippines – The first impeachment complaint lodged against President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. lacks form and substance for it to prosper and set in motion a trial that will oust the president, a House lawmaker said on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Caloocan 2nd district Rep. Edgar Erice is pinning his hopes on the weak arguments and lack of evidence that would compel the lower chamber to junk the complaint just in time to allow other impeachment suits to be filed.
The solon warned that once that first complaint – filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus and endorsed by a deputy leader of the minority bloc – reaches the House committee on justice, any other impeachment bid would be blocked, effectively giving Marcos a year of immunity from impeachment suits.
The Constitution imposes a one-year ban on the filing of another impeachment complaint.
“Sana hindi mapigilan nitong impeachment complaint na ito yung mga susunod pang mga impeachment complaint,” Erice told a press briefing on Tuesday, citing preparations being made by the Makabayan bloc to make a stronger case to impeach the president.
“’Pag referred na sa committee on justice eh wala nang ibang pwedeng makapag file ng impeachment complaint,” he pointed out.
[TRANSLATION: I hope that this impeachment complaint won’t be able to block any succeeding impeachment complaints.
Because once this has been referred to the committee on justice, nobody else can file another impeachment complaint.]
Typical impeachment complaints would involve volumes of evidence in contrast to the 15-page De Jesus filing, Erice said.
“Yung isinampa niya na impeachment complaint ay basura.
15 pages na walang ebidensya kung di mga news articles. Sa tingin ko ay wala ito sa porma at walang substance yung kanyang ifinile na impeachment complaint. Kung ako ang boboto sa committee on justice eh hindi ako magdadalawang-isip na i-dismiss ito,” he said.
[TRANSLATION: The impeachment complaint he filed is rubbish.
Fifteen pages with no evidence other than news articles. I think this won’t meet the form and substance requirements. If I were to vote at the committee on justice level, I won’t have second thoughts about dismissing it.]
Pressed further if his remarks were tantamount to innuendoes that the De Jesus filing was a political maneuver from the Marcos camp to skirt succeeding impeachment complaints, Erice said: “I don’t know his motive pero sana wag mangyari, kasi yung paggawa ng impeachment complaint napakatagal niyan.”
“Hindi madali ito nakita nyo naman yung impeachment complaint kay Vice President kung gaano kakapal yung document,” the lawmaker added.
[TRANSLATION: I don’t know his motive but I hope that won’t happen. Because crafting an impeachment complaint is a daunting task. It is not easy as you have seen when an impeachment complaint was filed against the Vice President [Sara Duterte]. The document was voluminous.]
Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte had called the impeachment complaint filing as a “scripted distraction,” claiming that lawyer De Jesus purportedly was the counsel of the first lady in a disbarment case against lawyer Glenn Chong. On Tuesday, Malacanang denied that allegation, saying De Jesus was not a former counsel for First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos.
