Panelo says planned impeachment rap vs Robredo by House is its own initiative

March 27, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte would not interfere if the House of Representatives would push through with the impeachment complaint against Vice President Leni Robredo.

This was despite Duterte's initial call to stop any move to oust Robredo.

"He (Duterte) will not interfere," said Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo in an interview with reporters on Monday.

He said whatever the lawmakers would do is their own initiative.

Panelo said Duterte has stated his personal conviction on the impeachment issue.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said he would push for the filing of an impeachment complaint against Robredo despite the President's pronouncement.

Aside from saying the impeachment move against Robredo should be stopped, Duterte has also offered Robredo and her children to have dinner with him in Malacanang.

But according to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a staunch critic of the President, Duterte's gesture to Robredo was a "trap to disarm and politically neutralize her at this time that Duterte is facing the biggest political storm yet of his term as president."

Panelo said Trillanes was just making intrigue.

He said Duterte just made a "sincere invitation," and it was "not unthinkable" for him to extend such invitation.

On Trillanes' call to Duterte as a "pathological liar," Panelo hit the opposition senator.

He said Trillanes' description of the president was "a perfect desription" of the senator. "I think he should know that," he said.

Trillanes made such description against Duterte after the latter accused the lawmaker of extorting money from big businessmen. Celerina Monte/DMS