ABANG Lingkod party-list Representative Stephen Paduano said yesterday the impeachment complaint filed against President Rodrigo Duterte has a political agenda.
“Impeachment as a legal process to unseat a sitting government official is all politics. To deny that politics or group, and political party is not involved in such move is a lie. For those who push for this process for sure has their own political agenda,” Paduano said.
The impeachment complaint was filed by Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano, a Negrense from Sipalay City.
Paduano said the form and substance of the complaint is important to pass the first base.
“But at the end of the day, it’s still a numbers game,” he said.
For his part, Alejano said that local officials are just playing safe in giving support to Duterte.
“They are politicians. That would be bad for them to say to the president that he is not doing well. During the time of former President Joseph Estrada many supported him, too but at the end of the day, he was also impeached. That means they should not be too confident of their numbers because that is not cast on stone,” he said.
Alejano said in a radio interview yesterday that the 54 congressmen who voted against death penalty was even unexpected.
“We are not that desperate to oust the president. We want him to be accountable of what he is doing. If the impeachment complaint will not be passed at least he would realize that he is not the government but only part of the government and he has the responsibility to uphold the law and the constitution,” the lawmaker said. “I am not a politician. I cannot rate the chances of the impeachment but we are working on it.”
Moreover, Paduano said: “If we are going to give malice, the move to impeach is a step forward to get international attention especially for the International Criminal Court to take a look and do something about the alleged human rights violations or crimes committed by this government and in the end it is still about politics. Part of the game plan of other political groupings to get what they want.”