HOUSE leaders on Thursday emphasized that the overwhelming supermajority support for the fourth impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte stemmed from extensive party consultations and the strength of the case itself, which consolidated the strongest allegations from previous complaints as 25 more lawmakers expressed interest in joining as complainants after submitting their verification documents.
Deputy Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor, Assistant Majority Leader Zia Alonto Adiong, and 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodrigo Gutierrez addressed the media to explain how lawmakers reached a consensus on the latest complaint.
Adiong, in a media interview, also confirmed that an additional 25 lawmakers, who were either abroad or in their respective districts, sent verifications to sign the complaint.
If the process will permit the acceptance of additional complainants, this will raise the total number of signatories from 215 to 240, representing more than 75% of the House’s membership.
Gutierrez pointed out that while discussions on impeachment had been ongoing, the earlier complaints did not gain enough momentum to consolidate broad support.
“Admittedly, it’s a long time coming po. We each congressman, although we’ve talked about impeachment, we’ve already formed opinions from the hearings of the Quad Comm and the Good Government committees,” he said.
“But the first three (impeachment complaints) did not gather consensus, it did not gather the momentum needed. While most congressmen, especially the members of the Justice Committee, were eagerly awaiting to fulfill our mandate by hearing it, I believe the party leaders have already thought of finding consensus between the three,” Gutierrez added.
Defensor underscored the importance of the party consultations – such as what was done among House members in Lakas-CMD, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), National Unity Party (NUP), Nationalists People’s Coalition (NPC), Nacionalista Party (NP), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), other parties, and the Party-list Coalition Foundation, Inc. (PCFI) – in strengthening the impeachment case.
“There were party consultations and considering that there were three previous impeachment complaints filed, nakabuo ng mas matatag at mas klarong impeachment complaint na nakakuha ng suporta at kumpiyansa ng mga congressman,” he explained.
“That is why with this fourth impeachment complaint, where the evidence is presented in a stronger manner, it gave confidence to more than 200 or 215 congressmen to act as complainants.”
Adiong highlighted that lawmakers had no choice but to act on the impeachment complaints due to their constitutional mandate.
“Simula po nung tumanggap po tayo ng mga complaints, tatlo pong impeachment complaints… wala pong choice ang miyembro ng House of Representatives kundi bigyan pong pansin itong complaints na ito because it now borders our constitutional mandate,” he said.
Defensor also revealed that party consultations had been taking place since the first impeachment complaint was filed.
“As far as party consultations are concerned, it’s been ongoing since the first impeachment complaint has been filed,” he said.
“Internally, depende sa partido, depende sa kanilang approach kung magtatanong sila internally kung may pabor ba sa impeachment, ano ang klase ng impeachment ang nararapat.”
Defensor noted that the fourth impeachment complaint was crafted with broader consensus among lawmakers.
“That is why nabuo itong fourth impeachment complaint where there is a consensus of more than 200 members who signed kasi mas malinaw itong impeachment complaint at mas matatag ang paglatag ng mga articles of impeachment.”
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