By Brian Campued
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. reiterated on Friday that the impeachment complaints filed against him had no “real grounds” and were just a “political move”.
In an interview following the groundbreaking ceremony of the PLM College of Allied Health Sciences Building in Malate, Manila, the President said that he was glad the raps were junked.
“As the statement that we made earlier, I’m happy it’s done, and we can get on with our work, you know. Because these things are distractions from the things that we were doing,” he said.
“Although I wasn’t very worried because I saw the impeachment complaint and I knew that we would be all right in terms of the impeachment. Kasi wala naman—there were no real grounds for the impeachment. It was a political move as usual,” he added.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Justice declared insufficient in substance the two impeachment complaints filed against the Chief Executive. The raps were separately filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus and by a group of complainants led by former lawmaker Liza Maza.
Among the bases of the complaints against Marcos Jr. were his alleged links to flood control projects, culpable violation of the Constitution, and betrayal of public trust.
No reaction’
Meanwhile, when asked for a comment regarding the fresh impeachment raps against Vice President Sara Duterte, Marcos stressed that he has nothing to do with the matter.
“I have no reaction. Hindi ko trabaho ‘yan, trabaho [‘yan] ng House [of Representatives]. Pabayaan mo sila magtrabaho. I’m sure they will handle it properly,” he said.
Duterte is also facing two impeachment complaints at the House, with the first rap filed by the Makabayan Coalition and endorsed by the Makabayan bloc while the second was filed by progressive and civil society groups and endorsed by Mamamayang Liberal and Akbayan party-lists.
House Secretary General Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil formally transmitted the two complaints to the office of Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III on Thursday.
“Upon receipt and verification of the complaints and their accompanying endorsements, the Office of the Secretary General forwarded the documents to the Office of the Speaker for appropriate action,” Garafil said.
The complaints accused the Vice President of misuse of public funds, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes. (with reports from Kenneth Paciente and Vel Custodio / PTV News)
-av
