Bersamin: President Marcos not blocking impeach move vs VP Sara

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos is not interfering with the constitutional mandate of Congress, but was simply expressing his personal stance in discouraging lawmakers from impeaching his ally-turned-arch foe Vice President Sara Duterte, according to Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.

Being a co-equal branch of government, Bersamin said the Chief Executive cannot dictate on the House of Representatives.

“All we were saying, the President was saying to the Lower House was, ‘this is my position’ – but he is not blocking (the impeachment), he cannot do that. Because it is the discretion of the collective of the Lower House. If they decide to initiate, there is no way of preventing that,” Bersamin said at a press briefing after attending a budget forum in Pasay City.

On Wednesday, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Women’s party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel of the Makabayan bloc blamed Marcos for the “unprecedented delay” in processing the impeachment complaints against Duterte.

Bersamin maintained the President rejected moves to unseat Duterte so the government and its officials could focus on working for the country’s progress.

“Under the Constitution, the impeachment must emanate from the lower house, OK? Now, if the President has made a statement at all about that process, it is only an opinion that he stated because he probably… the thinking of the President is that it might be distracting us from our agenda or our move forward,” he said.

Bersamin cited the impeachment of former president Joseph Estrada, which he said was “directly” endorsed by then speaker Manny Villar to the Senate in the year 2000.

“You remember, many years ago, speaker Manny Villar, when he endorsed the impeachment complaint against president Erap, no one could have prevented him, kasi diniretso niya iyong (because he sent directly the) impeachment complaint to the Senate and immediately the Senate acted. That’s all. We have autonomy, independence and so on, we cannot dictate on the other branches of government,” he said.

Duterte, who was Marcos’ runningmate in the 2022 elections, is facing three impeachment complaints, based on reports of misappropriation of public funds, particularly the confidential and intelligence funds.

House secretary general Reginald Velasco earlier said only six House members have signified their support for the three impeachment complaints separately filed against Duterte by Akbayan, Makabayan and a group of lawyers and priests.

In November last year, Marcos said impeaching Duterte was just a waste of time and would not make a difference in the lives of Filipinos.