Moves by his closest allies in the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Vice-president Sara Duterte-Carpio ground to a halt last week on direct orders of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself.
Marcos sent a text message to some members of the House that was eventually leaked to media which the President admitted really came from him.
That message said impeaching Duterte-Carpio was going to be a waste of time because it would involve not only the lower chamber of Congress but also the Senate which would be forced to serve as a trial jury should the motion move forward.
With his cousin Ferdinand Martin Romualdez serving as Speaker of the House, it was widely believed that any impeachment against Duterte-Carpio would succeed.
The VP had earlier threatened to have the President, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Romualdez killed if she herself were murdered.
Marcos’s unexpected message could not be interpreted as an olive branch to his estranged vice-president but that she was irrelevant.
The President’s text message read: “In the larger scheme of things, Sara is unimportant. So please do not file impeachment complaints.”
Later addressing local media, Marcos said, “That’s really my opinion. This (impeachment) is not important. This does not make any difference even in one single Filipino life, so why waste time with it?”
Some members of the House did not take too kindly to the President’s blocking of their planned impeachment of the Vice-president. The progressive bloc said it was proof of Marcos’s “weak leadership.”
The President was also accused of disrespecting the principle of three co-equal branches of government by interfering in the affairs of the legislature.
But Marcos was adamant that any move to impeach the second highest official of the land “will tie down the House, it will tie down the Senate. It will just take up all their time and for what?”
He added that as far as he was concerned, “it’s a storm in a teacup.”
Pressed by media if his fractured relations with the VP had reached a point of no return, Marcos answered: “Never say never.”
Previously, impeachment proceedings against Duterte-Carpio appeared all but certain as a result of the House committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s investigation of the Office of the Vice President’s alleged misuse of PHP500 million in confidential funds, and another PHP112.5 million of a similar fund during her term as Education secretary.
VP Duterte-Carpio either failed to attend committee hearings or adopted a confrontational attitude against the lawmakers.
This, after the committee flagged several alleged anomalous activities including inconsistent acknowledgment receipts signed by a certain “Mary Grace Piattos.”
Piattos is suspected to be a fake name as there is no record of her identity, either with the OVP or the Education department.
“Piattos” in fact, is a popular brand of snack chips.
The House hearings also discovered that millions of pesos in confidential funds were withdrawn from the LandBank of the Philippines and placed in duffel bags.
The funds were physically distributed nationwide in a span of one day, which the lawmakers deemed impossible.
Duterte-Carpio also angered lawmakers when she declared that she would be staying indefinitely in the office of her brother, Rep. Paolo Duterte. When her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez was ordered detained by the House for giving evasive answers during questioning, VP Duterte-Carpio announced she would keep her company, even in prison.
Duterte-Carpio had earlier said she expected to be impeached by the House, which would mark the end of her political career. —BETING LAYGO DOLOR (Contributing Editor)
