Robredo sees Bongbong in impeach bid

There is no doubt in the mind of Vice President Leni Robredo that former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has a hand in the filing of impeachment complaints against her.

“It’s really hard if your opponents are the Marcoses. It

seems that they want to drag the entire country just because they could not accept defeat,” Robredo said in remarks before urban poor groups who visited her office on Thursday to express their support.

Robredo was apparently referring to the late dictator ’s son and namesake whom she beat by a narrow margin in the vice presidential race last year. He has a pending electoral protest against the Vice President.

The Vice President said she has been the target of criticisms and allegations after she defeated Marcos in the elections.

“Maybe if our opponent was not a Marcos, the situation would not be this chaotic,” she said in Filipino.

President Duterte, a close friend of the Marcoses, has accused the Vice President of being “overeager” to assume the presidency. But he expressed belief Robredo was not involved in any attempt to oust him or destabilize the administration.

Known Marcos loyalists Oliver Lozano and Melchor Chavez last week filed an impeachment complaint against Robredo, accusing her of having “committed acts of injustice” when she spread “fake news” about the Philippines with her video message to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs side event criticizing the administration’s war on drugs.

Another group called “Impeach Leni Team” is set to file a second impeachment complaint against the Vice President.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, maintained that criticisms aired against the Duterte administration should not be immediately seen as destabilization.

Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party (LP), issued the statement as Malacañang and its allies in Congress have repeatedly warned of attempts to oust President Duterte by some opposition groups identified with the previous administration.

“Dissent does not mean destabilization. We are in a democracy, not a dictatorship. Dissent to ensure checks and balance is a constitutional duty,” Pangilinan pointed out.

He said the Senate should not shirk from its duty to investigate what he considered excesses or abuses in the executive department.

He cited as examples the extrajudicial killings and the police’s “tokhang” operations, the P50-million bribery scandal at the Bureau of Immigration, the killing of Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa by policemen in his cell and the kidnapping and murder of Korean Jee Ick-joo.

“It is our constitutional duty in the legislative branch to act as a check and balance on the executive branch,” Pangilinan said.

Last week Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and LP senators engaged in a verbal tussle over calls to oust Duterte that both sides agreed were hurting the passage of vital legislation.

The bickering between Pimentel and the LP senators led by Pangilinan started when the party as well as the minority bloc bragged about their legislative accomplishments and asked the Senate President to stop talking about the possible impeachment of Robredo.

LP senators led by Franklin Drilon dominate the minority bloc. Other members of the minority are Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV of the Nacionalista Party and Sen. Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan. Pimentel accused the LP senators of being domineering and dictating on their colleagues.

“The key here is simply respect for each other,” the Senate President said in a text message. –