House justice committee dismisses impeachment complaint vs Duterte

May 22, 2017

The House committee on justice unanimously approved Monday the committee report dismissing the impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte. Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, justice panel chairman, led the adoption of May 15, 2017 decision where 42 lawmakers junked the impeachment complaint filed by Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano after admitting that he had no personal knowledge on the allegations raised. "By unanimous vote, the committee report on resolution dismissing the verified complaint for impeachment and supplemental complaint affidavit filed by Rep. Gary Alejano against President Rodrigo Duterte, effectively putting a one-year ban on any and all impeachment complaints that may be filed against the President, is hereby approved unanimously," said Umali. The panel spent 20 minutes to approve the committee report where 17 panel members voted for the dismissal of the complaint. Based on the 15-page committee report, the panel concluded that the impeachment complaint against  Duterte is defective, prompting lawmakers to declare it “sufficient in form,” but “not sufficient in substance.” “It is further recommended that this Committee Report and its accompanying Resolution dismissing the Verified Complaint and Supplemental Complaint for the Impeachment of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte be approved in a Plenary Roll Call vote pursuant to Section 3(3), Article XI of the 1987 Constitution,” the report said. “Hopefully, we will be able to tackle the committee report and the resolution at the earliest Wednesday, or if not on Monday, we hope this matter will be tackled and approved in the plenary,” said Umali. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the impeachment complaint against Duterte cannot be revived in the plenary. “No chance to revive or override it, it is already dead,” said Alvarez. “We don’t need to hear that (complaint) again since he had no personal knowledge, all hearsay and we were just wasting the time of Congress.” DMS