MANILA, Philippines — The Makabayan bloc is assured that the impeachment grievance in opposition to Vice President Sara Duterte will acquire traction and transfer, regardless of fears that Congress doesn’t have a lot time to take away the second-highest official from workplace.
In a briefing on Wednesday, earlier than progressive teams led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) filed their grievance, sectoral leaders have been requested if they aren’t involved about time since previous impeachment proceedings normally took months earlier than it was completed.
As of Wednesday, the Home can solely maintain as much as 12 session days earlier than it adjourns on December 20 for the Christmas break, if Thursdays and Fridays are included. Session then resumes on January 13, 2025, however there would solely be 20 potential session days earlier than adjournment on February 7, 2025 for the election marketing campaign season.
READ: 2nd impeachment rap vs VP Duterte cites 1 floor for faster talks
In keeping with former lawmaker and Bayan chairperson Teddy Casiño, his expertise in Congress has proven that point will not be a priority if lawmakers have the desire to behave on a selected measure.
“I’ve spent a while in Congress, and I do know that, in the event that they wish to hasten the method, it might be straightforward to take action. And we’re (assured) as a result of Congress have been discussing the difficulty for thus lengthy, we expect lawmakers know the grounds.,” Casiño mentioned.
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“It’s actually a matter of simply systematizing and placing all this stuff in a proper grievance. I feel a lot of our lawmakers know what occurred. And so they’re simply ready for somebody to file a grievance,” he added.
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One other former lawmaker and now Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares mentioned that they don’t suppose the impeachment grievance that they filed would wish 4 months identical to what occurred to former Chief Justice Renato Corona, as their petition solely used a single floor—betrayal of public belief.
READ: ‘Mary Grace Piattos’ doesn’t exist, PSA confirms
“I used to be a public prosecutor throughout the Corona impeachment, nicely there may be betrayal, a culpable violation of the Structure, there may be graft and corruption, eight acts, that’s why it took 4 months. Anyway, in the event you can show an impeachable floor in a single act, that’s sufficient,” Colmenares mentioned.
“So we might now not goal one thing just like the Corona case which took 4 months and in reality, as a result of we’re simply submitting a grievance based mostly on a single floor, possibly this may be faster, possibly it might solely take a month for the Senate trial,” he added.
However whereas the grievance filed by Bayan and different teams solely used one floor, a separate grievance filed by civil society organizations that was endorsed by Akbayan party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña used 5 grounds:
- culpable violation of the structure
- graft and corruption
- bribery
- betrayal of public belief
- different excessive crimes
Requested if a potential consolidation of the 2 complaints filed would imply an extended time, Bayan president Renato Reyes mentioned it’s nonetheless early to anticipate the steps that the Home will take.
Moreover, Reyes cited one other technique to advance impeachment complaints—an impeachment grievance filed by a minimum of one-thirds of all Home members, which on this case, totals to 103.
“We have no idea what would be the motion of the Congress on the complaints, usually if there are lots of complaints, it may be referred to the justice committee and the dedication of kind and substance and consolidation of the complaints will occur there,” Reyes mentioned.
“It will likely be as much as the Home as to what could be the strongest grounds to base the case on, and what could be submitted as articles of impeachment. However there may be additionally a fast-track, the place it might now not undergo the (committee on) justice.),” he added.
Reyes was referring to Part 3, Paragraph 4 of Article XI of the 1987 Structure, which states {that a} Senate trial would proceed “in case the verified grievance or decision of impeachment is filed by a minimum of one-third of all of the Members of the Home.”
Duterte and her places of work—the Workplace of the Vice President (OVP), and beforehand, the Division of Training (DepEd)—have been the topic of a Home investigation attributable to questions on how the confidential funds (CFs) have been utilized.
Among the points embrace a discovery that acknowledgement receipts (ARs) for the CFs have been signed by a sure Mary Grace Piattos—which Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop mentioned has a primary identify just like a espresso store, and a final identify that may be a well-known potato chip model.
The ARs signed off by Piattos have been a part of the liquidation stories mentioned throughout the identical listening to, referring to the P23.8 million confidential funds coated by 158 receipts.
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On Tuesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority confirmed that the identify Mary Grace Piattos doesn’t seem on their dwell start, marriage, and loss of life registry.
