Will the House really impeach VP Leni?

Today is the 72nd birthday of Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte and from the looks of it, the president has no planned public engagements, opting to spend his birthday in the comfort of his home in Davao City and giving his time to his grandchildren. Indeed when you turn into a grandfather, it gives you a glimpse into your future. If you have a business conglomerate, you can already tell which of your grandchildren can handle your business empire. In the case of Pres. Duterte, he already said that he has reached the pinnacle of his career and doesn't need material things. This is what I like about Pres. Duterte, he shuns luxuries and wants to live a simple life. Happy birthday Mr. President!

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I was taken aback by the headline of The FREEMAN yesterday entitled "Majority is not with BOPK yet" because two councilors; Councilor Nendel Hanz Abella and Councilor David Tumulak, did not yet make their pledge of allegiance to the BOPK party. But if you recall, these two declared themselves as "independent" of the majority and minority parties. Frankly speaking, these two are better off as independents because as they say in poli-tics, when the two major political parties are courting your vote, you could actually get more for yourselves.

But I don't take it against Mayor Tomas Osmeña for making that announcement even if the two independents have not taken their pledge as belonging to the BOPK because these two already got executive positions as Deputy Mayor for Police matters for Councilor Tumulak and Deputy Mayor for Education for Councilor Abella. Honestly, I don't think this is a setback for BOPK because for sure if a vote is called upon on important issues, I'm sure that these two "independents" would favor BOPK.

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If Pulse Asia is to be believed, a survey they conducted from December 5 to 11 shows that 82 percent of the people living in Metro Manila feel safer. Come now, how could this be when Vice President Leni Robredo recently used a Rapplerbased statistic that some 7,000 people have been killed in extra judicial killings since the war against illegal drugs was waged by Pres. Duterte?

VP Robredo made that video statement last March 16 during the 60th anniversary of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs at the Vienna International Center. As I pointed out, she shouldn't have washed her dirty linen in the international stage because by shaming the Duterte administration, she also shamed herself, after all she was part of the Duterte government until she was asked to quit.

The banner headline news of the Philippine STAR yesterday blared 'Leni impeach bid to proceed'. Apparently, House Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez intends to proceed with the impeachment of the vice president despite the calls of Pres. Duterte to drop the issue. This is one way the House Speaker declares his independence from the Executive Branch. So do you think or believe that this impeachment bid will prosper? For sure the PDP-Laban has the numbers in the House of Representatives and impeaching the vice president would not be difficult. But getting her conviction in the Senate might be a tough case to handle.

But I agree with many pundits that the impeachment of VP Robredo or the proposal to impeach Pres. Duterte by the Magdalo Party list would take away the focus of the Legislative Branch from its work in the development of the Philippines. Perhaps what the Legislative Branch ought to do is come up with a law where no impeachment against the top government officials can be allowed until a year in office. Now whether this can materialize, we have no way of knowing. But it's food for thought!

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The reason why Pres. Duterte postponed the Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) polls was due to the ongoing war against illegal drugs, where it has been found that a good number of barangay officials are involved in this illegal activity. I don't know how many times the president told his audience that he has a list of government officials involved in illegal drugs and many of them are barangay executives. So the big question is should we have barangay or SK elections, or should these barangay executives be appointed? Abangan!