Bam Aquino to colleagues: Resist pressure, intimidation

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV warned his Senate colleagues on Monday not to cave in to intimidation and pressure if the impeachment of Vice President Leni Robredo reaches the upper house.

Aquino, a member of the Liberal Party and deputy minority leader of the Senate, challenged his colleagues in a statement, saying the country’s democratic institutions should stand up and fight for freedom amid supposed plans at the House of Representatives to impeach Robredo over a video message sent to a United Nations event.

“Our democratic institutions, especially the Senate, must show that we can operate justly without succumbing to intimidation and pressure,” Aquino said.

“Democratic institutions must stand up and fight for our freedom and democracy while we still enjoy it,” the deputy minority leader said.

Aquino released the statement just after LP senators criticized Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III for saying that a potential impeachment complaint against Robredo has a greater chance of prospering considering the number of House members allied with President Rodrigo Duterte.

The five LP senators said that instead of turning his attention to Robredo’s posisble impeachment, the Senate president should instead mind more pressing issues such as the rising number of extralegal killings, the increasing prices of goods and reported Chinese incursions in Benham Rise.

Last week, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said that he was studying the filing of an impeachment charge against Robredo for supposedly besmirching the country’s reputation before the international community. Robredo’s camp called the statement irresponsible and premature.

Aquino said that if the House leadership would “bully and threaten” House members, the Senate may have to sit as judges in the impeachment case.

He said this move was indicative of the administration’s intolerance of dissent or disagreement.

“Clearly, this reaction from leaders of this administration is coming from the obsessive need to curb dissent or disagreement,” Aquino said. “But I have faith that my fellow legislators can still stand up to pressure that may be put on them and act fairly on the matter.”

Robredo’s allies have been busy defending her, the highest-ranking government official of the party. They said that Robredo’s remarks in the video were based on the experiences of individuals who went to her office following their victimization by the police.

They also stressed that the vice president was not part of any move to destabilize the government or to oust Duterte. They emphasized that the president himself had cleared Robredo of any involvement of moves to remove him from office.

The president has since said that he would not be surprised if Robredo is behind an impeachment complaint filed against him by Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano.