President Marcos: JPE right on INC rally, but VP impeachment not ‘practical’

MANILA, Philippines — While he agrees with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile that Congress should not be pressured either way on the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, President Marcos on Friday maintained that moves to remove his former ally from office are not “practical.”

Enrile earlier questioned religious group Iglesia ni Cristo (INC)’s “peace rally,” which was supposedly held in support of Marcos’ stance against impeaching Duterte.

However, the event is widely seen as a warning by the religious sect – which practices bloc voting – to lawmakers against unseating Duterte.

“JPE is one of our best legal thinkers in the country and he is right, there is a consequence to – there will be a precedent, and it will be very problematic,” the President told reporters in Leyte.

“But I still think that even if Congress is mandated to process these, the House doesn’t have a choice, and the Senate doesn’t have a choice once these impeachment complaints are filed,” he said.

“I don’t think that now is the time to go through that (impeachment),” the President added, citing the coming election campaign season.

“Congressmen and senators will be campaigning and we cannot muster a quorum (in Congress). And so, as a practical matter, the timing is very poor,” the Chief Executive said in Filipino and English.

In a post on Facebook on Wednesday, Enrile, a former Senate president, said: “There is a bigger question. Can the INC with all its members amend the Constitution or suspend any of its provisions? Are we prepared to discard or sacrifice the value of rule of law for a person or a group of persons?”

“As a nation and a state, we will incur a very detrimental precedent if we follow the logic implicit in the INC rally that they mounted. Are we prepared and ready to face the long term consequences of that INC move?” he added.

Enrile said impeachment is just a constitutional legal process to remove a government official from office if there is ground and evidence to support it, adding that the impeached official is not going to jail by the mere fact of his impeachment.Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Thursday said Marcos still opposes efforts to impeach the Vice President.Duterte, who was Marcos’ runningmate in the 2022 general elections, is facing three impeachment complaints.

The INC said an estimated 1.8 million members attended its Jan. 13 rally in Manila.The religious group, which endorsed the tandem of Marcos and Duterte in 2022, earlier said the rally was not a political gathering.

Meanwhile, religious leaders, social movements and various other organizations held a “Mass for Peace and Justice” at the EDSA Shrine on Thursday to urge Congress to act swiftly on the impeachment complaints against Duterte.