Palace distances itself from Sara impeach bid

Malacañang yesterday distanced itself from the filing on Monday of an impeachment complaint against President Marcos' former ally-turned-arch critic Vice President Sara Duterte, repeating an admonition to lawmakers that such a move would only distract the government from its task of attending to pressing matters.

- By ALEXIS ROMERO

"The impeachment complaint filed in the House of Representatives by several private citizens is clearly the complainants' independent initiative, and its endorsement, the prerogative of any member of the House of Representatives," Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement.

"The Office of the President has nothing to do with it. The President's earlier statement on the matter is unambiguous," he added. In a media interview in Lucena City last week, Marcos confirmed telling lawmakers not to file impeachment complaint against Duterte, saying it is not important and would not make any difference in the lives of Filipinos.

He called an impeachment complaint “a storm in a teacup” that would tie down the House of Representatives and the Senate.

However, Marcos’ remarks failed to dissuade some groups from pursuing an impeachment complaint against the Vice President over her alleged culpable violations of the Constitution, graft and corruption, bribery, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes.

In a chance interview, Bersamin said Malacañang would not encourage the filing of an impeachment complaint as Marcos has been very clear about his position on the matter.

“Any suggestion that it is political or instigated by our side, no. That is never true,” the executive secretary said.

“What the House of Representatives is saying is we let the process flow. For our part, what do we need to say? The President already made it clear and unambiguous... that he will not support an effort to impeach because it is distracting. There are a lot of things we need to do. They are important to the nation,” he added.

The complaint against the Vice President was filed by civil society leaders, former government officials, religious figures and sectoral representatives and was endorsed by Akbayan partylist Rep. Perci Cendaña.