Partylist solon files Impeachment complaint vs Duterte

March 16, 2017

A partylist congressman filed on Thursday an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte, his first since taking office on June 30, 2016, at the House of Representatives. In a statement Thursday, Magdalo Partylist Rep Gary Alejano said the impeachment complaint was based on Duterte’s “alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.” “All these actions constitute proper grounds for his (Duterte) impeachment pursuant to Sections 2 and 3, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution,” said Alejano in his statement. House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said in a radio interview the Lower House will take that up on May 2 when the lawmakers return after the Holy Week break. Session adjourned Wednesday night. Alejano said specific crimes mentioned in the complaint are:

• Duterte committed high crimes of bribery, multiple murder, crimes against humanity when he adopted a state policty if inducing policemen, oyher law enforcement authorities, and vigilante groups into the extra-judicial killings of more than 8,000 persons who were merely suspected of being drug offenders;
• His involvement in multiple murder as mastermind of the Davao Death Squad;
• He committed graft and corruption with the hiring of 11,000 ghost employees when he was still a mayor of Davao City; and
• His unexplained wealth amounting to more than two billion pesos in deposits and credits that flowed into his numerous bank accounts,

“The filing of this complaint will prove that there is no destabilization ploy. Impeachment is a constitutional process of ousting a sitting president,” said Alejano. “It’s time for President Duterte to be responsible to his sins against the nation,” he said. DMS