Impeach rap vs Marcos ‘weak,’ lacks substance
Two lawmakers said on Tuesday that the impeachment complaint filed against President Marcos was bound to fail, describing it as “weak” and “conspicuously” devoid of substance.
“This particular complaint appears crafted more for media consumption than for serious constitutional scrutiny. The House will not treat impeachment as a mere press statement or partisan maneuver. We will demand substance, and in this instance, substance is conspicuously absent,” Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said in a statement.
“Impeachment is the heaviest constitutional weapon available to Congress. It cannot—and must not—be wielded on the basis of recycled accusations, hearsay, or purely political grievances,” Adiong added.
He observed that the complaint filed by lawyer Andre de Jesus relied “almost entirely on long-standing claims from vocal critics, which have been repeated as propaganda.”
“There has been no parallel House investigation, no subpoenaed documents, and no smoking-gun proof presented. This is politics dressed up as impeachment, and it will not succeed,” he said.
De Jesus filed the impeachment complaint, the first against Mr. Marcos, on Monday. It was endorsed by Pusong Pinoy Rep. Jernie Jett Nisay, said to be the sole proprietor of JVN Construction, which reportedly bagged three public works projects worth P73.8 million in 2021 and 2022.
De Jesus listed six grounds for his complaint, which he said amounted to culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.
Six grounds
These were the President’s alleged enabling of the kidnapping and surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC); his supposed addiction to drugs, which impairs his judgment and leadership; his alleged failure to veto unprogrammed appropriations and other unconstitutional provisions of the General Appropriations Bill for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026; and allegations that he benefited from kickbacks arising from budget insertions and ghost flood control projects.
The other two were his creation of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to supposedly shield corrupt allies; and his alleged violation of the constitution and betrayal of public trust for surrendering Duterte to the ICC.
At a press briefing, Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice said he agreed with Adiong, saying the impeachment against Mr. Marcos would be “dead on arrival” due to the weak composition of the complaint.
Asked to elaborate, Erice said only one of the six grounds mentioned by De Jesus—the issue on unprogrammed appropriations and their role in the infrastructure corruption scandal—merited a second look.
Just 15 pages long
But he noted that the complainant failed to attach sufficient documents to prove his allegations, as the entire complaint was only 15 pages long.
“The complaint alleges [that] the President enabled the kidnapping and surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court. It would require a lot of documents to link the President, so if there are none, this is just garbage,” Erice said.
The President, meanwhile, is unfazed by the impeachment complaint filed against him, not because he has the numbers to back him, but because he believes he did not commit any wrongdoing.
“He knows that he has been working in accordance with the Constitution and the law. He is confident that the complaint will not prosper because he has done nothing wrong,” Palace press officer Claire Castro told reporters.
She also refuted insinuations that De Jesus, who had been linked to first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, was deliberately bungling the impeachment complaint so that it would be dismissed, thus protecting Mr. Marcos from facing a similar action for a year.
“We want to make it clear that the President and this administration are not experts in stirring intrigue, nor are they experts in planting evidence,” Castro said.
In a statement, De Jesus said he was never involved with the first lady, saying he filed the impeachment complaint against President Marcos “to bring forward issues that have long been discussed in podcasts, television programs, and public forums, yet have not been acted upon through the constitutional process.”
