Schedule tight for VP impeach process - lawmaker

With only nine session days left before the Christmas break, lawmakers would have to work on a tight schedule to process the impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte.

- By JOSE RODEL CLAPANO

This was according to Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores, vice chairman of the committee on justice of the House of Representatives, saying they haven't even received copies of the impeachment complaints filed by Akbayan and civil society leaders and by the Makabayan bloc.

“The timeline will be challenging here if it goes to the committee on justice. The remaining nine session days is very tight. After it is referred to the committee on justice, after that, there will be a determination of its sufficiency in form,” Flores told reporters on Friday.

He said there was no official referral yet from the Office of the Speaker to the committee on justice of the impeachment complaints against Duterte.

“We just recently found out the second impeachment complaint. There was no referral yet. It has not been read before the plenary yet. So, I think that is what they should do first. What I am aware of is that it has been already filed and endorsed by their members,” he said.

Flores explained that in the determination of substance of the impeachment complaint, the committee on justice would have to require the respondent to file her answer within 10 days.

“So that alone is going to eat up a lot of days in the remaining days of the session of the House,” he said.

He noted the Makabayan bloc’s signature campaign for its impeachment complaint – the second filed – on the sole basis of “betrayal of public trust.” He said the bloc may have resorted to a signature campaign in acknowledgment of the limited time left for the impeachment case to proceed.

“I think they are doing that because they are also aware of the time limitations, the number of days remaining where the impeachment complaint that they filed can move,” Flores said.

He said he has not yet been asked for his signature by any member of the bloc comprising militant members of the House.