‘Impeachment no distraction from other concerns’

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives can address the country’s urgent concerns while still carrying out its constitutional duty to hear the impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, House assistant majority leader and Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said yesterday.

“There are pressing concerns facing the country that can be addressed more effectively by properly compartmentalizing how they are handled,” Adiong said in a statement, rejecting calls to forego the impeachment proceedings.

The lawmaker pointed out that the national government is already taking steps to respond to the fallout from the global oil crisis.

“Now, the President already declared a state of (energy emergency). In fact, the UPLIFT committee is created that will discuss how we can respond to the effects of the global crisis brought about by the ongoing clash between the United States, Israel and Iran,” Adiong noted.

He added that the House itself has already acted on measures meant to cushion the effects of rising fuel prices and the broader economic strain linked to imported petroleum.

“In fact, the House of Representatives also approved the suspension of the excise tax in order to alleviate the effects not only on the energy sector, but there are also other sectors that are relying on imported petroleum in order to operate and do business within certain sectors, not only energy, but the transportation, medicine, etc.,” he stressed.

Finished by May

The House committee on justice may wrap up impeachment proceedings against Duterte by the end of May even as the body continues to tackle questions over probable cause and the fairness of the process.

“From the time of the initiation or referral to the committee on justice, it’s 60 session days. So our estimate is, if I’m not mistaken, at the end of May,” justice vice chair and San Juan Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora said over the weekend.

The timeframe matters because the committee is working through a politically charged case while also trying to show that its members are approaching the proceedings without bias against the Vice President, despite public criticism and the intense national attention surrounding the complaint.

Zamora stressed that confidence in the numbers inside the committee should not be read as proof of prejudice, but as a reflection of how lawmakers assessed the complaints, the annexes and the threshold issues already taken up by the panel.