President Rodrigo Duterte publicly opposed it, but what does one make of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s threat to initiate impeachment proceedings against Vice President Leni Robredo?
The President’s critics find it hard to believe that the House Speaker will proceed with so rash an action without his blessing. There is the belief that the planned impeachment against Robredo is in retaliation to the impeachment complaint being lobbied by the Magdalo group against President Duterte in Congress.
While the impeachment complaint against Duterte may likely fizzle out, such is not the case with Vice President Robredo since the President holds the super majority in Congress.
Aggravating the administration’s beef with Robredo are her recent statements condemning the spate of extrajudicial killings that occurred in the past year and her questioning of the government’s relentless war against drugs.
The Vice President’s statements supposedly affected tourism in the country, and the Department of Tourism (DOT) also chided the media for supposedly creating the climate of uncertainty that caused tourists to shy away from visiting the Philippines.
While we have no doubt about the PDP-Laban’s capacity to lodge an impeachment case against Robredo, we only wonder how long it would take for them to do so and if they will respect President Duterte’s call for them to forget about it.
In a speech before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), President Duterte called on his congressional allies led by Alvarez to “stop it” since the country had just held elections last year and Robredo’s impeachment may impact heavily on the country’s political stability.
Besides, Robredo still faces an election case at the Supreme Court lodged by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, and it wouldn’t look good on the Duterte administration if the public sees them trying to dislodge Robredo to pave the way for either Marcos or Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III to assume the vice presidency.
Though they are in the minority, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Liberal Party (LP), whose standard-bearer now is Robredo, would pull every string available to prevent the impeachment from rolling and gathering steam.
While public sentiment may be divided on the issue, we have to ask whether the country needs both impeachment cases at this time to divert their attention from the continuing problems of poverty, economic inequality and, yes, criminality other than the illegal drug menace.
Alvarez has more than enough to fill his plate without even considering the continued plan to federalize the political system, and it’s better for him and his allies to focus on this than trying to oust the Vice President.
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